This is one artist’s rendering of a Boyar. Though I don’t know how historically accurate it is.
I liked the moodiness of it.
To see the original go here. To learn more about the Artist go here.
Viktor Vasnetsov: A Knight at the Crossroads
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Author Archives: the editor
You scared yet?
With the honeybees disappearing, you thought that the good old bumblebee would help carry the load right? Unfortunately, bumblebees seem to be disappearing as well. This from Fox news…
Thorp, an emeritus professor of entomology from the University of California at Davis, found one solitary worker last year along a remote mountain trail in the Siskiyou Mountains, but hasn’t been able to locate any this year.
He fears that the species — Franklin’s bumblebee — has gone extinct before anyone could even propose it for the endangered species list. To make matters worse, two other bumblebee species — one on the East coast, one on the West — have gone from common to rare.
Amid the uproar over global warming and mysterious disappearances of honeybee colonies, concern over the plight of the lowly bumblebee has been confined to scientists laboring in obscurity.
But if bumblebees were to disappear, farmers and entomologists warn, the consequences would be huge, especially coming on top of the problems with honeybees, which are active at different times and on different crop species.
If this trend continues, it will be just one more thing making food prices expensive.
Is this what Israel used to hit Syria?
Spice has no engine to give it away to sensors and does not rely on global positioning systems (GPS) to guide it to its target, making it very hard to detect or deflect before its pinpoint impact on target, the officer in charge of the project said Monday.
Instead, digital pictures of the target are downloaded into the computerized guidance system, which then matches the picture to the reality on the ground.
In addition to its incredible accuracy, a fighter plane can be loaded with several Spice bombs which can be programmed to hit different targets despite being launched from the same spot. Once released, Spice glides in to destroy its target, which can be dozens of kilometers away.
Spice is a totally blue and white product, a joint project of the air force and Rafael Armaments Development Authority. While very effective, it is not cheap. It costs more than a Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) but is in “a different league,” according to the officer in charge. It has twice the range of the American-produced JDAM.
If the US air force was smart, they would be taking notes. The JDAM will not work if China or someone else takes out US satellites.
The army is going to give the Iraqis M-16s
According to the Wall Street Journal, the plan is to equip the Iraqi army with M-16s. How stupid can the US government get? As Phillip Carter says….
With this program, we’re making the job of our advisers in the field significantly tougher, notwithstanding the contractor support at Camp Taji for the training of Iraqis. Although, I seriously doubt these Iraqis can shoot their rifles with anything approaching proficiency after three days. You spend more time than that in basic training learning how to get dressed, let alone learning how to shoot. Training marksmanship takes weeks or months or years, not a few days. This program has the potential to fundamentally change the mission calculus for advisers working with the Iraqi army, such that they must now focus much more time on individual weapons skills vice actual patrolling and combat operations. I also wonder whether this is the best use of Iraqi funds, or whether it would’ve been smarter to fix the AK-centric logistics system they already have.
I think that T.E. Lawrence’s ghost is probably laughing at us right now. What next? Will we try to give laptops, e-mail and PowerPoint to the Iraqi army? Oh wait…
Some commentators on Mr. Carter’s blog argue that giving M-16s to the Iraqi army is a good thing. After all, the weapon takes so much careful maintenance to maintain that in the absence of American support and supervision they are likely to become useless.
But that argument only strengthens my point. Does the US government want to turn Iraqi army into effective force or not? If they do, giving them M-16s is the last thing they should be doing. Heck, the co-creator of the M-16 recently said that if his son was over in Iraq he would want him to have an AK.
More speculation on Israel's raid into Syria
U.S. aerospace industry and retired military officials indicated the Israelis utilized a technology like the U.S.-developed “Suter” airborne network attack system developed by BAE Systems and integrated into U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle operations by L-3 Communications. Israel has long been adept at using unmanned systems to provoke and spoof Syrian surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems, as far back as the Bekka Valley engagements in 1982.
And what is Suter?
This from a different Aviation Weekly article….
Senior Suter is a Big Safari-managed special access program. Big Safari itself is a shadowy Air Force unit that has developed small numbers of specialized reconnaissance systems, including drones, in what are often classified programs. The Suter technology was developed during the last several years by BAE Systems and involves invading enemy communications networks and computer systems, particularly those associated with integrated air defense systems (AW&ST Aug. 16, 2004, p. 24; Nov. 4, 2002, p. 30). Suter 1 allowed U.S. operators to monitor what enemy radars could see. The capability enables U.S. forces to assess the effectiveness of their stealth systems or terrain-masking tactics. Suter 2 permits U.S. operators to take control of enemy networks as system managers and actually manipulate the sensors, steering them away from penetrating U.S. aircraft. Suter 3 was tested last summer to add the ability to invade the links to time-critical targets, such as battlefield ballistic missile launchers or mobile surface-to-air missile launchers. Aircraft involved in the Suter programs include the EC-130 Compass Call, RC-135 Rivet Joint and F-16CJ strike aircraft specialized for suppression of enemy air defenses.
Here is a Defense Tech article on the subject of Suter. Also, h/t to Defense Tech for bringing the Aviation Weekly article to my attention.
Don't worry, because you can't do anything anyway.
“We have identified a specific change that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans,” said Kawaoka, who led the study.
“The viruses that are circulating in Africa and Europe are the ones closest to becoming a human virus,” Kawaoka said.
Recent samples of virus taken from birds in Africa and Europe all carry the mutation, Kawaoka and colleagues report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens
“I don’t like to scare the public, because they cannot do very much. But at the same time it is important to the scientific community to understand what is happening,” Kawaoka said in a telephone interview.
Honestly, if a pandemic comes, I doubt it will come from Bird Flu. I don’t really have any good reason for this belief, just Murphy law. Disasters never seem to come from where you expect them.
On a similar vein, why don’t people worry more about the flu strains that already afflict humans mutating into killers? Seems to me that all they would need is a little fine tuning to start killing large numbers of people.
Oh Brave New World, That Has Such People in It
Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.
The announcement, which is expected within weeks and could come as early as Monday at the annual meeting of his scientific institute in San Diego, California, will herald a giant leap forward in the development of designer genomes. It is certain to provoke heated debate about the ethics of creating new species and could unlock the door to new energy sources and techniques to combat global warming.
I personally think that his claim of creating artificial life is a little bit oversold. It seems to be more a Frankenstein style creation of slapping different pre existing parts together rather then making anything from scratch.
Still, it is an achievement of sorts. So was the atom bomb.
Poem of the Week: 10/7/07-10/13/07
“Pirates” is not a poem for the ages. But when I read it, I could not help but think of our clan.
Rant of the Week: 10/7/07-10/13/07
This rant about a lonely widow struck me as being a good complement to this week’s essay of the week.
Essay of the Week: 10/7/07-10/13/07
This week’s essay of the week is not really an essay per say. Rather, it is a slide show on the demographic changes in Europe. If you have been following Europe’s demographic situation, these slides might not tell you anything you do not already know. But even if that is the case, I still think that these charts will bring the reality of the crisis home.
For example, I already knew that the number of people over 65 had overtaken the number of people under 14 in Europe. But to see a chart comparing the growth of the number of the people over 65 with the fall in the number of people under 14 since 1980 really brought home to me how rapid this change has been. Makes you really think about what the next 25 years are likely to bring.
It is like seeing a train wreck in slow motion. Those under 14’s are the only ones who can have the children of the future. Not only are that, but those under 14’s are the ones who are going to have to pay for the retirement of their elders. It’s not going to be pretty.