Sadly the reports were not so exaggerated this time around
It has been said that those with the greatest genius also have the greatest demons. This is because they usually have an all or nothing approach, and much greater amplitude in all they do. The very drive that enabled them to reach the pinnacle also enables them to more easily sink into the abyss. Steve Jobs was no exemption to this rule. He was indeed a very interesting man to say the least, a bit tyrannical and megalomaniacal, but also very innovative. He didn’t do focus groups to pander to what people wanted, but just designed great products that were simple and intuitive. Then he of course used his reality distortion field to make people realize that it was what they had wanted all along, and that it was worth the premium price. Apple products were also works of art of course, and even sacred to some.
Steve Jobs said: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”
Steve Jobs was in many ways an aberration; a seemingly impossible social phenomenon that was never supposed to exist. He had no qualifications as a computer programmer or a business leader; he was simply an idealist visionary who persevered in pursuit of transformative excellence. He raised the bar for how we now interact through media with his belief that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. While he may have lacked an eternal perspective, which is freely given through Christ; he certainly understood the brevity of life and made the most of the time he was allotted.
This is good, while the History Channel has gotten fairly entertaining lately, it seems like they have forgotten a lot about the ‘Hstory’ part. Don’t get me wrong I am all for making history enjoyable and entertaining, but watching some of these shows on the History Channel lately seems to yield nothing more than entertainment. I do enjoy watching them too, and often times do when there is nothing else on worth watch out of 100′s of channels, which is surprisingly often.
It seems even within the fictional genre considerations of character development, plots, and meaningful themes have really taken a back seat to just shear entertainment value or conveying a wow factor. Thus reality TV seems to be the easiest model for everyone to explore. Since they can then make a TV programs by simply following and chronicling a person’s life.
Thus History has become oblique at best in most of programs. This is especially sad because these are shows that are supposed to have history at their core, and they are addressing it only in an oblique fashion. Since it is so much easier to make TV in real time, than to actually dive in, deeply explore the past, and create quality depictions of it.
The latest talk on the bin Laden raid has been a supposedly new stealth helicopter that was use by the Navy Seals during the raid. While it is not all that surprising in many respects that we may have a new stealth helicopter. The surprising thing is that it has been kept a secret until now. Although, it has not really been kept a total secret, but a through misinformation campaigns that would have deflect the fact that development had continued on the stealth helicopter programs after the cancellation of the Comanche program.
I remember the Comanche helicopter was actually used in computer game probably about a decade ago, so the existence of these types of helicopters has not been unknown or secret, per se. We have know about the potential for stealth helicopters for quite a while. Since the first Comanche helicopter was developed in 1995 and I am not sure when exactly the Comanche program became public knowledge, but as far as I know it wasn’t a big secret , but just a somewhat lesser known and talked about program and ultimately lesser valued program, since it was canceled in 2004. Here is a report from the time:
February 23, 2004
Army to End Comanche Helicopter Program
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:34 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army has decided to cancel its Comanche helicopter program, a multi-billion project to build a new-generation chopper for armed reconnaissance missions, officials said Monday.
The contractors for Comanche are Boeing Co. and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.
With about $8 billion already invested in the program, and the production line not yet started, the cancellation is one of the largest in the history of the Army. It follows the Pentagon’s decision in 2002 to cancel the Crusader artillery program — against the wishes of Army leaders.
Pentagon officials said a public announcement was planned for Monday afternoon.
Loren Thompson, who follows aviation and other defense issues for the Lexington Institute think tank, said he believes the Army under new chief of staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker favors ending the Comanche program, even though the service had been counting on it to provide a new reconnaissance capability.
“The Bush administration has now killed the two biggest Army weapons programs it inherited from the Clinton administration,” Thompson said, referring to the Crusader and Comanche.
Earlier this year the White House budget office asked the Pentagon to provide independent reviews of the Comanche and another expensive aviation program, the Air Force’s F/A-22 Raptor fighter.
Although killing the Comanche project would save tens of billion in future costs, the cancellation decision is expected to require the Army to pay at least $2 billion in contract termination fees.
The Comanche program was started in 1983 and had survived many reviews. Initial production was scheduled to begin in 2006.
Below are known facts about the Comanche:
Stealth characteristics. The Comanche incorporates more low-observable stealth features than any aircraft in Army history. The Comanche radar cross-section (RCS) is less than that of a Hellfire missile. To reduce radar cross-section, weapons can be carried internally, the gun can be rotated aft and stowed within a fairing behind the turret when not in use, and the landing gear are fully-retractable. The all-composite fuselage sides are flat and canted and rounded surfaces are avoided by use of faceted turret and engine covers. The Comanche’s head-on RCS is 360 times smaller than the AH-64 Apache, 250 times less than the smaller OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, and 32 times smaller than the OH-58D’s mast-mounted sight. This means the Comanche will be able to approach five times closer to an enemy radar than an Apache, or four times closer than an OH-58D, without being detected.
Noise suppression. The Comanche only radiates one-half the rotor noise of current helicopters. Noise is reduced by use of a five-bladed rotor, pioneered by the successful Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) MD-500 Defender series of light utility helicopters. The fantail eliminates interaction between main rotor and tail rotor wakes. The advanced rotor design permits operation at low speed, allowing the Comanche to sneak 40% closer to a target than an Apache, without being detected by an acoustical system.
Infrared (IR) suppression. The Comanche only radiates 25% of the engine heat of current helicopters, a critical survivability design concern in a low-flying tactical scout helicopter. The Comanche is the first helicopter in which the infrared (IR) suppression system is integrated into the airframe. This innovative Sikorsky design feature provides IR suppressors that are built into the tail-boom, providing ample length for complete and efficient mixing of engine exhaust and cooling air flowing through inlets above the tail. The mixed exhaust is discharged through slots built into an inverted shelf on the sides of the tail-boom. The gases are cooled so thoroughly that a heat-seeking missile cannot find and lock-on to the Comanche.
These characteristics combined with ground hugging (aka map of earth flying) are all in keeping with the reasons why the helicopter could had gotten in range without being seen on radar or heard by neighbors until it was overhead. So this really boiled down to three possibilities. One maybe they just took in a Comanche or a few Comanches, and found some other way to get the troops in either by conventional helicopter or some other means, two the most plausible possibility is they specific developed a sort of modified Black Hawk Comanche hybrid for this mission, which they had a year to plan, or third there could still be a black program going on which develops Comanche like helicopters on a limited scale for special forces missions.
Of course there are other possibles of similar helicopters currently in development that the Navy Seals could have used modifications of. One such helicopter is the Eurcopter X3 which can fly a plane like speeds and may also explain why they didn’t hear noise until the helicopter was right over top. Sikorsky also has a similar version the called the X2. While the neither of these specifically match the tail blade certain similar technologies could had been employed.
However, considering how bin Laden was such a high priority target it is very quie concivable that they did develop or at least modifiy something for this mission. Since there is not really any other convicable reason why we would have needed a year of planing for this mission, since we didn’t need to engage diplomatic channels with Pakiastan, but simply find ways around them.
However, considering how bin Laden was such a high priority target it is very quite conceivable that they did develop or at least modify something for this mission. Since there is not really any other conceivable reasons why we would have needed a year of planing for this mission, since we didn’t need to engage diplomatic channels with Pakistan, but simply find ways around them. Once we located bin Laden around that area it doesn’t seem feasible that we lost him (in fact the CIA even had a safe house in Abbottabad watching him), rather it seems the most likely scenario is that Pakistan has been shielding him. Thus the planing was needed to evade detection by Pakistan more than anything, and part of that planing was likely use of, not new or secret stealth technologies, but modified stealth technologies that are not widely used due to cost prohibitablity. Furthermore, it is clear the if the helicopter crashed the technologies did not work all that well, and were probably not widely developed under a large scale black program.
Now of course Obama may be trying to detract from this by meeting with “special operators” tomorrow. While it makes movies and such to have bin Laden killed in such a way, the ideal way really would be to of had him killed in the most indiscreet and insignificant way possible, which would had ddiminished his stature, now the fear becomes that it will be remembered that we used are best technology and everything we had to take him out. Nonetheless, the fact still remains we go him, so it will continue to be a rallying event. Now the best thing we can do is to forget him, because the terrorists would want for him to be remember as a martyr or something. Thus the best thing is to say we got him, and that is that.
Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan after the raid
So I just received emails from both the Washington Post and ABC News Indicating that President Obama said on 60 Minutes he is not going to release the pictures of Osama bin Laden.
One can’t help but wonder why this is. It must be assumed if he is not intending to release photographs there must be some other method of evidence that can certify that the body is indeed that of Osama bin Laden. Since he has about 600 relatives composed of a “Saudi group”, a “Syrian group”, a “Lebanese group,” and an “Egyptian group it is not inconceivable that they could run some sort of DNA test, but it doesn’t seem likely we could verify his exact DNA since we never had it to begin with.
Nonetheless, a paternity DNA test (which I just found is the type they reportedly ran on bin Laden’s DNA) that determines whether a father and child are related, is fairly accurate, but it would also be nice to verify the Mitochondrial (Maternal) DNA as well. Nonetheless, without the original DNA and considering the large family size that bin Laden came from there may continue to be speculation that we may, on some off chance, have killed the wrong man. People after all wouldn’t accept President Obama’s birth certificate as valid, so it’s not hard to see this conceivable escalating into some a trivial controversy.
Since there will always be that element of doubt, but what can anyone really know for sure anyway. We could take the argument all the way to existentialism (that you can only know what you experience) and beyond if we wanted and dismantlement all concepts of epistemology. Thus, it would be silly to seriously doubt bin Laden’s death unless we had some very compelling reason to believe the Obama administration has very compelling motive to device on this point. Again there is a very small question left, but the doubt right now is probably just the media doing its due diligence in vetting the withholding of these photographs.
In paternity testing, no man will ever be 100% included as the biological father because there is always the slight possibility that the DNA profile of the alleged father matches the DNA profile of the child by mere chance. The likelihood of this happening is usually well below 0.001% (1 in 100,000), but it depends in large part on the ethnic origin of the individuals involved. In addition, it important to note that the certainty usually increases with the number of DNA loci (locations) analyzed.
~DNA Genetic Connections http://www.dna-geneticconnections.com
But the test can’t rule out that the body was bin Laden’s brother, according to Dr. Lawrence Kobilinsky, a forensic scientist and chairman of science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. ABC World News http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/osama-bin-laden-relatives-dna-matching-technique-reliable/story?id=13510123
President Obama addresses the nation on the death of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden is finally dead. This is something that has been a long time coming. It is has been almost 10 years since the 9/11 attacks, after which we committed to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Although we all knew bin Laden was in Pakistan, we allowed Pakistan to harbor bin Laden, because they are a nuclear power. Fortunately, they allowed limited cross border operations enabling this day, which for so long seemed like it would never come, to finally come.
The operation was authorized by the President last week and was executed last night by US special forces under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Navy Seals landed in the compound and proceed to killed bin Laden, shooting him at least once in the head, and subsequently took possession of his body. They had been operating on a tip they received back in August.
While this is no longer of much strategic significances in terms of winning the war on terror, it is a huge achievement in terms of moral and perception! Prior to this point our failure to kill him has been sort gnawing at our creditability on the world stage. Now we have achieved a tremendous victory for the psyche of not only the nation, but the world.
Osama bin Laden has been killed in a CIA operation in Pakistan, President Obama will announce from the White House, according to multiple sources.
Washington Post
President Obama Addresses the Nation on the Death of Osama Bin Laden [10:46 p.m. ET]
ABC World News with Diane Sawyer
Today we can all idenfity with the Psalm of David
Psalm 18
37I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.
38I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet.
39For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.
40Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me.
41They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the LORD, but he answered them not.
42Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
43Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me.
44As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.
45The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places.
46The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
47It is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me.
48He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man.
49Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.
Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)-U.S. Energy Department via Associated Press
With Prices at the pump starting to reach $4+ a gallon it may be time for Obama to release some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Apparently he has indicated that he could had done it about a month ago, but he seems to be waiting for a worst trigger point; than the current crisis in Libya and the Mideast. Since Libya actually doesn’t supply that much oil only maybe 3% of our imports or a couple of 1000 barrels a month. Egypt is a relatively small source as well with only several hundred barrels a month. As of lately the biggest source of imports has been the oil sands in Canada, from which we are getting a couple 1000 barrels a day.
Since it is not a supply problem, but a speculation problem some would say we shouldn’t tap the reserve. However, considering the size of the reserve (about 700 million barrels of oil) it need not be depleted substantially to help ward off speculators for the time being. A speculation problem is just as bad as a supply problem with the effect being that it is takes money from those who can least afford it and gives it to those with the most. Obama’s solution would seem to be higher taxes, but the real solution would be to make the game fair, so you don’t have to reshuffle the deck and take the legitimate gains off the table along with the illegitimate gains.
Hybrids and electric vehicles simply remain cost prohibitive, both in terms of up front costs and practical savings. A Prius for example simply has too high of an initial cost and higher maintenance costs (for a battery replacements) coupled with limited availability in the secondary market that makes it cost prohibitive for the many working class folks who are hardest hit by the high gas prices.
So one the best solution right now would seem to be a ramp up in production coupled with a fast diffusion or flooding of the market from the reserve, which should bring the price down. Of course the problem is we cannot ramp up production at home much until infrastructure improvements are made and drilling is expanded. Also hybrids will have to be designed much more practically, and auto companies will have to greatly expand their hybrid production to bring prices down. Thus the main source of the current problem is the speculation, and there needs to be some sort of regulation or caps on oil speculation for the time being,because the notion that you can force people to drive less is just ridiculous.
Sure you can technically force people to drive less (or rather you can force the poor and lower classes to drive less), but the question of what you are really forcing people to do less of is hardly ever addressed. What people who think we should drive less are really saying is people need to do less and be less involved in the communities around them, because all our society is connected by roads and there is very limited connectivity for non-motorized vehicles.
Despite efforts to plan more compact communities after high school we cannot guarantee work places and public transit will always work out to be so close to home and practical. The fact of the matter is when public transit is actually available it is quite often not practical for must people since it can often involve quadrupling commute times or worst, and it still uses oil for the most part, albeit less.
Thus we are pushed into more indoor activities and community events and organizations tend to take a hit. So what high gas prices really does is discourage people from visiting parks, museums, recreational, cultural and historical sites around them. It encourages people to frequent places such as Walmart and many other one stop types of places, instead of shopping around at speciality and ma and pa type stores stores. It is just generally bad for society, and there is no way around some of these severe geographical limitations we up again in driving less.
Ultimately the problem of out of control market manipulation on such a necessity of life will have to be addressed in some way. Since, our modern society simply could not function without oil and since the bulk of farms are so far away from where people are living and our communities are simply too far spaced for non-motorized transportation in most cases. Driving less will not solve the problem, but will simply delay the inevitable market collapse as the problem diffuses into the upper classes.
Hundreds of Thousands in Tahrir Square: Photographed By: Mona sosh
The Egyptian people have spoken and after 18 long days of protest their president of 30 long years has finally agreed to go. While this is generally seen as a good thing at this stage, there is still so much question as to who will fill this void. President Obama and others are comparing this to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and even quoted from Dr. Martin Luther King. Conversely, one must ask what president wouldn’t jump a moment during their administration they could compare to the fall of the Berlin Wall. So, on the flip side others are declaring this to be a disaster on par with the Iranian Revolution that will upset the entire balance of power in entire Middle East.
It of course remains to be seen what will occur in Egypt I think most people are approaching the situation with a moderate stance of guarded optimism. While there is a real threat that the Muslim brotherhood could rise up to fill the void. It still not clear that even if they do it would be a complete disaster. Plus they do not represent as bulk of the protesters, however given the predominately Muslim culture in Egypt they are nonetheless a concern with a real potential of pragmatic appeal to the majority.
The one thing that we do not want in Egypt is another country on Sharia (Islamic law) because of the provisions in Islamic law that makes it very dangerous for freedom of religion, and even freedom of speech and very oppressive culture for women and any Muslim dissenters. Already under the old regime in Egypt the Coptic Christian Church has come under heavy persecution, with authorizes often looking the other way and refusing to prosecute perpetrators of violence against Coptic Christians. The Coptic Christian Church traces its origins all the way back to the first century with tradition holding that it was established by the apostle Mark, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples.
Another real large cause of concern in the region is one we are heavily invested in the region with both economy and military aid. First we have already had one really large crisis with the Suez Canal and Communist concerns this century, so we would like to avoid another. That concern of course played somewhat of a role in drawing us into the Vietnam crisis because of concerns over Communist expansion in Europe we didn’t also want to lose Asia to communism as well. Now of course we have a whole other, but similar set of concerns with Muslim expansion in region.
Secondly, we have supplied Egypt with quite modern arms such as F-16 fighter jets, M1 Abrams tanks, high quality training at West Point, NY, etc, etc.
Lastly, Egypt is rumored to have a clandestine nuclear program, so in would certainly be disastrous if the country fell into the wrong hands. We of course would not want to jump the gun on invasion over any WMD program, but it’s much better if we can keep the country as a close ally to both us and Israel and not have to worry too much about dismantling any WMD program.
“Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!”
“Never tell me the odds.”
~C-3PO and Han Solo
“Never tell me the odds” is perhaps one of the most memorable quotes from Star Wars. While the delivery was good, the quote is not memorable because of anything particularly special in the delivery or the way it was said. It is memorable because we can all identify with it when we are going through tough, dangerous, or difficult times none of us really want to hear how bad the odds are. We simply need to know that success is possible. Time and time again in countless hero stories almost always one of the common factors is that they faced seemingly insurmountable odds. The other common factor is that they completely defied those odds. How did they do it? Well simple they ignored those odds. Ok so maybe they didn’t actually ignore it. They gave it attention, but only the minimal necessary and it wasn’t their primary focus. They focused on something greater, Star Wars simply called it the force, but in reality it is not simply an impersonal force, but a knowable God who we can focus on.
When a God of heroes comes to mind the God of the Bible seems to emerge as the most logical choice. The God of the Bible is also the God of David (the giant slayer), Samson (superman), Moses (the magician), Elijah (the prophet of fire), etc. If we were to think of a Greek god or some other god would almost seem like the people succeeded in spite of them, those sort of gods seems very malevolent. However all of these real life heroes of the Bible had a close relationship with their God, and while it may seem like they were mythical in aspects its important to ask ourselves what came first the myth or the person. It some instances it is possible the myth may have preceded the person as a sort of foreshadowing. So if the myth, we must ask, do we find uncanny yet inexplicably precise detail, commonalities across myths, real portraits accounts of the men with both the good and the bad, and/or universalism in these myths that seems to transcend cultures. If so, perhaps we ought to consider that just maybe what were seemingly myths are real and realize that we can indeed face our giants if we focus on our even bigger God. Shrinking back is always there waiting for us to default to. Stepping up to the challenges on the other hand takes faith and courage.
This is a very profound yet simple word of wisdom, which I got on my iGoogle words of wisdom gadget today.
The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. – James Allen
While this may seem pretty self expletory there are a couple of important things to keep in mind here.
One calmness of mind should not be mistaken with passivism, for it is not passivism. Rather, it is well thought out and strategically timed bold action executed in accordance with a plan, and not out of desperation. The other thing to keep in mind is that there will from time to time be certain situations that no calmness can master, but can only ease.
This quote is an except from James Allen’s famous work As a Man Thinketh. This quote, along with many other parts of the book explain there is a lot of change that can be affected by positive thinking, however as a final word of caution there are limits on what positive thinking can accomplish.
We do not create reality with our thoughts, nor attract reality, we simply enable God to work through us, as we are nothing more than a vessel that must first act in accordance with our thoughts and enabling for reality to be affected beyond us. Accordingly, this should never be taken to the radial and extremely destructive notions presented in more postmodern works such as The Secret, which postulate that we are all essentially gods and able to create reality through our thoughts. You must have a trust in God and His workings in order to fully benefit from positive thinking.
Got to love campaign slogans “trust Chafee”. Chafee give me something more to trust than a 1% tax increase on the stuff I need. If that’s the good news I hate to hear what the bad news is.
(Now don’t get me wrong I honestly don’t know much about him, but what I do know is the only thing I keep hearing him say in all his ads is he is going to tax necessities 1%. Never mind everyone has to live, so we can just go beg bargain and steal to make up the shortfall I suppose.
Well I don’t hear anyone talking about tax free yachts in this state, but I guess that’s making jobs and there aren’t other ways to make jobs besides caring for the rich folk’s pleasure crafts.)
Frankly, I am just not really liking anyone right now, so even at this late stage of the game I am open to voting for any of the candidates if they show me who they trust as their moral authority, a comprehensive solution to the states woes with a timeline, and perhaps a genuine change of heart on some issues depending on if they will even say where they stand in the first place. Until then Linc last I remember in was in God we trust, and not in Chafee we trust. Now I’m not saying trust in one is preclusive of the other nesscaily, but the resemblance in the calling for our trust is rather uncanny. In such case my trust goes first and foremost to the highest authority, and then the lower authority must gain my trust, by showing they have also submitted their trust in the highest authority.
Also just so it doesn’t seem like I’m only picking on Chafee I must say wow Frank Caprio your are frankly (pun intended) no better telling off the President like that, you can cross off my name from your list of support. Also if your father’s antics of asking people to perform musical bits and disclose all kind of personal information and such in the Providence traffic court are any indication of what your antics may be like as governor I’m to say the least a little worried.
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