Thursday - March 04, 2010
I’m not a lawyer—oh, wait, yes, I am!
Priceless! Ann Coulter remembers that she IS a lawyer!
Subprime crisis hits whorehouses
I’m just glad to know that Hynes conducted a thorough “investigation” first. Who did he have screen the videotapes, Gov. Paterson?
If his investigators had actually watched the videotapes, they would have found ACORN employees apparently advising a pimp and prostitute on how to defraud mortgage lenders, deposit prostitution money in a bank, hide money from the government and avoid detection while running a whorehouse with teenage girls from El Salvador.
I’m not a lawyer—oh, wait, yes, I am—but I count approximately a half-dozen state law crimes being discussed on those tapes, from money laundering to advancing prostitution.
In a “Eureka” moment, ACORN Employee-of-the-Month Volda Albert identifies for O’Keefe and Giles the problem they had been having getting a mortgage:
Albert: Um, is it legalized? Is prostitution legalized in New York state?
O’Keefe: It’s not. It’s not, unfortunately.
Albert: Well see, that’s your problemAs ACORN employee Milagros Rivera said, “You can’t say what you do for a living because of the law.” But displaying ACORN’s can-do attitude, she explained: “Honest is not going to get you a house.”
ACORN employees helped concoct a scheme to hide from the lender the source of O’Keefe and Giles’ down payment money. Albert suggested that O’Keefe “pay a down payment—or (Giles) can transfer to somebody else, who is not in that business ... a close friend, then (Giles) can transfer that, and then he can give you, like, a gift to purchase.”
Under New York law, hiding the true source of down payment money from a lender constitutes mortgage fraud. Also, using the proceeds of criminal conduct in any banking transaction is money laundering.
Does anybody need a flow chart at this point, or should I continue?
In fact, she does continue. The ACORNS never fall far from the Barack tree.
Posted by Christopher
on 03/04/2010 at 07:49 PM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Corruption and Greed •
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Permalink • stop playing the petty politics of yesterday
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) speaking to the council of mayors, at the NJ League of Municipalities meeting, using the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid analogy:
We need to understand we are all in this together. And you know, all of you know in your heart, what I am saying is true. You all know that these raises that are being given to public employees of all stripes, we cannot afford. You all know the state cannot continue to spend money it does not have. And you all know that the appetite for tax increases among our constituents has come to an end.
And so the path to reform and success is clear. We know what it is. We just have to have the courage to go there. What we are doing is showing people that government can work again for them, not for us. Government has worked for the political class for much too long.
There’s no time left. We have no room left to borrow. We have no room left to tax. So we merely have room left now, to do this. We are all reaching the edge of a cliff. And it reminds me a bit of that part of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where the had a seminal decision to make. So what did they do? They held hands and they jumped off the cliff.
We have to hold hands at every level of government, state county, municipal, school board. We have to hold hands and jump off the cliff.
I firmly believe we will land and we will be fine. It does not mean it will not be a scary ride on the way down. And it does not mean there won’t be moments of fear and moments of apprehension.
But for certain, the troops of the decades of overspending and overborrowing and overtaxing have gained on us. And they are armed and they are ready to get us. So the ruination of New Jersey’s economy, and of the quality of life we want all our citizens to have, is certain if we don’t take this course. So I hope that makes the decision for all of you a lot easier.
It’s time for us to hold hands and jump off the cliff. It’s time for us to do the difficult things that need to be done and to stop playing the petty politics of yesterday, of pitting us against each other, of setting up false choices, of lying to people and telling them they can have what they want and do not have to pay for it because someone else will. Someone who’s smarter or richer or more successful, or telling them that this is just the price you have to pay to live in this state.
We are going to make the leap because that’s what people elected me to do. We are going to make the leap because it is the responsible thing to do. We are going to make the leap and we are going to do it together because that is what leadership demands for us. That is what the responsibility of the offices we hold requires of us.
Forget about the next election. Forget about the next editorial in the newspaper, and forget about the next angry letter or phone call you are going to get from someone who wants something for nothing.
He did the whole thing without a teleprompter too. Not even notes written on his hand. Not much emotion, no grand physical gestures, no mighty soaring rhetoric. Just the truth.
Now let’s see him swing that axe, and start chopping. And keep chopping. Let the chips and the blood fall where they may.
When I went into the treasurer’s office in the first two weeks of my term, there were no happy meetings. They presented me with 378 possible freezes and lapses to be able to balance the budget. I accepted 375 of them.
My God, I think we elected a Conservative. And Christie was the middle of the road guy during the Republican primary! Steve Lonegan made him look like Casper Milquetoast.
A partial transcript can be found at Mish’s, and the video, all but the last 20 seconds of it, can be found here at NJN Online.
NRO thinks he’s been drinking the truth serum.
Ace agrees too. Gosh.
Moe Lane notes that Christie is carrying a 52% approval rating in this blue to the bone state, and seems to think this guy could actually be from Texas.
Texas? Cha. How do youse freakin say “yee freakin ha” wid a freakin Texas accend? Maybe we should loin how.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/04/2010 at 06:02 PM
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Permalink • Head teachers will be forced to list children as young as five on school ‘hate registers.
Nobody likes a school bully and certainly they should be put in their place. Like on the ground with someone’s foot on their throat.
But this isn’t that. There isn’t any bully involved here unless it’s the bullying nanny state. Nanny is going to extremes now with what is and isn’t proper for school kids to say or call one another at play or in argument. Small kids.
Here, take a peek.
Pupils aged five on hate register: Teachers must log playground taunts for Government database
By Ryan Kisiel and Steve Doughty
Daily MailHead teachers will be forced to list children as young as five on school ‘hate registers’ over everyday playground insults.
Even minor incidents must be recorded as examples of serious bullying and details kept on a database until the pupil leaves secondary school.
Teachers are to be told that even if a primary school child uses homophobic or racist words without knowing their meaning, simply teaching them such words are hurtful and inappropriate is not enough.
Instead the incident has to be recorded and his or her behaviour monitored for future signs of ‘hate’ bullying.
The accusations will also be recorded in databases held by councils and made available to Whitehall and ministers to help them devise future anti-bullying campaigns.
The scale of the effort to stop children using homophobic or racist language was revealed after the parents of a ten-year-old primary school pupil in Somerset, Peter Drury, were told that his name would be put on a register and his behaviour monitored while he remained at school.
The boy was reported after he called a friend ‘gay boy’. His parents fear the record of homophobic bullying will count against him throughout his school career and even into adulthood.
In another incident last year a six-year-old girl, Sharona Gower, was reported for ‘racist bullying’ at her school near Tunbridge Wells in Kent.
Sharona was chased by two 11-year-old girls, one of whom taunted her that she had chocolate on her face.
The six-year-old responded to one of the girls, who was black: ‘Well, you’ve got chocolate on yours.’
Many schools nationwide have already followed advice that they should record incidents of alleged racist, homophobic or anti-disability bullying.
We had a kid in our class once called ‘Stinky’ coz generally he did. It was stuff he put in his hair. It had an odor till the teach told him in front of the class that he couldn’t come to school like that. End of funny smell but we continued to call him stinky. Nowadays no teacher would say that out loud and I guess our whole class, or those who called him stinky anyway, I guess we’d end up on this hate register. With this govt., everything can be taken to be a hate crime.
Posted by peiper
on 03/04/2010 at 12:09 PM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Nanny State • Stoopid-People • UK •
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Permalink • Thinking It Through First
Seriously, it is. Build this out of the proper material and insert it into the mechanism of a certain semi-automatic rifle made with the proper model of bolt, and you will have a fully automatic weapon. The parts only last 1000 rounds or so before needing to be rebent, but they do work.
One key thing about Eugene Stoner’s little wondergun is that almost all the stresses of firing are contained by the upper. That part of the gun has the barrel, the bolt, the breech, the gas tube, and the recoil system. The lower can be, and has been, made from plastic. Granted it’s a very strong plastic, like Delrin or Bakelite, but it’s plastic nonetheless. Which means it can be modified without much effort. The plastic extension at the back of back of the toy’s receiver could be filed off and a plastic plug glued into the rear ring. The two necessary holes could be easily drilled through that plug. If real trigger parts - the “fire control group” were put inside this and they didn’t quite fit, then grinding the required clearances, redrilling the connecting pin holes, inserting spacer shims, or even building up surfaces with machinable epoxy is no big deal. And out the other end could come a fully automatic weapon strong enough to be fired a few hundred times that is totally untraceable - because toy guns don’t have serial numbers. And every other part of an M16 is perfectly legal to buy and own without any kind of permit or paper trail.
I saw this story a few days ago and wanted to run with it, but I realized it would require a bit more thought before I shot my mouth off about what looked like another episode of Stupid Government In Action:
ATF seizes 30 toy guns, infuriating local business owner
CORNELIUS, Ore. - A local business owner is flabbergasted after a shipment of 30 toy guns for his store was confiscated by ATF agents in Tacoma.
Brad Martin and his son, Ben, sell the Airsoft BB guns from their store in Cornelius where they’ve been in business for seven years.
The Martins said they buy their stock from Taiwan because the merchandise is less expensive. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized a shipment of 30 in October. That shipment is worth around $12,000 and the ATF is promising to destroy the entire shipment.Special Agent Kelvin Crenshaw said the toys can be easily retro-fitted into dangerous weapons.
“With minimal work it could be converted to a machine gun,” Crenshaw said.
Brad Martin is furious about the loss of money, for sure, but also in what he now thinks as a loss of his time and the use of government agents to seize toy guns.
“All this manpower, all this time, all this taxpayer money, [it is] wasting my time and my profitability,” Martin said. “[Just] to seize 30 toy guns!”
Ben Martin disagrees that the toy guns could ever be considered dangerous.
“To say these are readily convertible to machine guns is absolutely preposterous,” he said. “The round wouldn’t go into the firing chamber and even if the firing pin did strike the primer the gun would basically blow up in your face.”
ATF said it also seized the toys because they are missing the blaze orange tips required on all imported toy guns.
Shock News. Jack Booted Thugs at ATF, again, as usual. Waco, Ruby Ridge!!
No. There is misdirection in this story from both sides.
The orange tips thing is just plain wrong, since these Airsoft products aren’t exactly toy guns. They are a form of BB gun, and BB guns don’t get the orange tip specifically because they AREN’T TOYS. They actually shoot some sort of projectile at some sort of significant velocity. Sure, it’s a little plastic ball, but the thing pushes them hard enough so that they can fly nearly 100 yards.
The “absolutely preposterous” reaction of the importer is quite foolish. He is confusing “readily convertible” with “an actual firearm”. No, the Airsoft is not a real AR15 or an M16. But if you can fit a REAL upper onto the thing, and fit a REAL fire control group to the thing, and fit a REAL gas tube and recoil assembly to the thing, and do it all with a Dremel tool and a pot of glue and an hour or two, then the “readily convertible” argument is valid.
Kind of makes me wonder if you couldn’t just carve an M16 lower out of oak and attach all the parts. But that’s more skill and effort than your usual criminal can come up with. No, what we need here is a bit of proof. Show us how it’s done, Mr. ATF guy. Or somebody.
Machine Guns Seized At Tacoma Port
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms found that the rifles were tooled to shoot plastic balls, but replacement of internal components with original machine gun components would render the rifles capable of firing live ammunition.
“These rifles could have had far-reaching and potentially devastating ramifications if they had gotten into the hands of individuals who wanted to do harm in the American population,” said Customs and Border Protection Area Port Director, Rolando Suliveras, Jr. “This was a good interception by our officers.”
The guns will be destroyed.
I have written to Airsoft and asked them for a statement on this situation. Whether they respond, and how their lawyers allow them to respond, remains to be seen. I asked nicely, so you never know. In the meantime, instead of just flying off the handle like so many other blogs, I searched through a large number of hits on Google and finally found somebody with a bit of common sense, who got a statement from the distributor, who had approached a gunsmith with parts in hand and said Have At It:
Now we at Airsoft Outlet Northwest, being the rational individuals we are, went out and had a gunsmith check the true compatibility of these replicas and found the following information:
- The WE TTI M4’s lack any sort of functional gas tube which is integral to an AR15’s operation
- The upper receiver of an AR15 fits onto the lower of the WE TTI M4
- The stock trigger pack in the WE TTI cannot strike the firing pin of a AR15 bolt
- The body of the WE TTI lower is several mils thinner than an AR15 lower, and shims would be needed for any AR trigger pack to work
- The trigger pack of an AR15 appears to be able to fit onto the lower receiver of a WE TTI M4, one of the AR15 trigger pack retaining pins is impossible to insert without major modification, and the hammer isn’t operable with the WE TTI lower.
Nice work, Every Day No Days Off! Thanks.
He provides a couple of links and even has the news video embedded. Great work Mike! And he concludes ...
Basically, if the ATF claims these airsoft guns can be easily converted into real guns, they should just demonstrate the conversion, and put a couple of magazines through it. There needs to be some accountability and burden of proof placed on these government organizations.
I concur. And I’m sure you noticed the bit of CYA in the above statement from the distributor. Again, we need to have a clear understanding of what “major modification” really entails. These “toys” may be a bit too close to the real thing, so let’s see it. On the other hand, if the guy from the ATF has a leg to stand on, then why the hell hasn’t the government immediately banned the sale of these things? You think that the 30 seized ones are the only ones in the country? Hella no, there are tens of thousands of them.
One last bit of opinion from the importer, who seems convinced that the border inspectors are untutored automatons with an agenda:
When I called this CBP Agent in Seattle to inquire what the problem was he more or less gave me the cold shoulder and wouldn’t (or couldn’t) give me any reason as to why he was holding our product. I had stated that it was my right to know what laws Airsoft Outlet Northwest had broken and he more or less told me:
“What rights?”
After this conversation my faith in Customs and Border Protection completely fell apart. I realized that we (Airsoft Outlet NW) were dealing with bigoted individuals whose personal agendas were more important than holding the Airsoft industry to any sort of standard.
I now assume that this agent in Seattle, like many oblivious officials do, based his judgments purely on hearsay and without any circumstantial evidence seized our product for his own self gratification and/or self promotion. He has yet to provide any sort of proof that he, or anyone else, has been able to convert any of the WE gas pistols, KJW M700’s, or WE TTI SCAR’s to shoot live ammo. I would even go as far as to call him a liar if he said he did test them because of the fact that the civilian or military version of the SCAR is still extremely limited in number, and I doubt this CBP Agent would be able to get one to potentially destroy. The simple fact of the matter is that these three Airsoft replicas are nowhere close to having the ability to shoot live ammunition. The inspecting agent is basing his judgments on speculation and not fact, he cannot provide any evidence to support his argument, and refuses to open any lines of communication about our product being illegal.
And one last bit of counter-opinion: if you are importing a product that feels like a gun, looks like a gun, and is a type of gun, then it is in your best interest in this day and age to pro-actively make the effort with the government to get their sign-off that your product is OK. No, you really shouldn’t have to, but there’s a war on, so what did you expect?
Posted by Drew458
on 03/04/2010 at 12:06 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Guns and Gun Control • Jack Booted Thugs •
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Permalink • Britain’s Islamic Republic ……………. video worth seeing
Sorry people, all I can give you is the link to the video. Can’t put it to bed here.
It’s a long one and it’s interesting. This was aired on TV just recently. So far, I haven’t seen much if any mention in the press and no demonstrations etc.
How much of this is absolutely guaranteed true and no hype? Don’t know. According to the comments page an awful lot of muslims are crying foul. Many of them claim to be anti fundamental and anti terror so I guess you’ll have to view and listen for yourself. Must say however that from what we have seen and heard over the last few years, if the extreme ones are actually in the minority, they sure do get the attention and they sure do cause the trouble and we sure could do without em.
Britain’s Islamic Republic
Channel 4: Dispatches 02 March 2010
Dispatches investigates a fundamentalist Islamic group headquartered in Britain, and its claims to have placed its ‘brothers’ in positions of political power here.
Using undercover recordings, investigative journalist Andrew Gilligan reveals the group’s ambitions to create a worldwide ‘Islamic social and political order,’ and the concerns of a mainstream party that they are being ‘infiltrated’; and talks to the Muslims who want to stop it.
THE VIDEO IS HERE AND RUNS 49 and a half minutes
Posted by peiper
on 03/04/2010 at 10:50 AM
Filed Under: • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • RoPMA • Terrorists • UK •
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Permalink • Wednesday - March 03, 2010
Pirates Go For Coal
Booming Asian demand for South African coal will put more ships at risk from Somali pirates operating in the Indian Ocean and raise insurance and freight costs already hiked due to seaborne attacks.
Emboldened by rising ransom payments, Somali pirates have stepped up attacks in recent months, making tens of millions of dollars by hijacking ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.
While pirates have hijacked oil tankers, passenger ships and yachts, they have started to target slow moving coal bulk carriers, which are easier to overcome than a large tanker.
Asia, led by India and China, could take 75 percent of South Africa’s 65 million tonnes of thermal coal exports in 2010 as demand shifts from glutted Europe, putting many more ships in the gun sights of Somali pirates, analysts said.
That’s right folks, there’s a boom market going on in coal. Sure makes me proud we have a super-genius president who has promised to bankrupt the coal industry! China and India can’t get enough of it, and they will burn it any damn way they want. Kind of makes me wonder if all this green movement stuff, this “clean coal” is all just NIMBYism. Not In My BackYard. Please, do you have the slightest, smallest belief that any factory in India or China is going to have the scrubbers and the purifiers in the smokestacks like powerplants and factories in the USA do? And you know where that coal dust lands that gets burned in China? In Oregon and California.
So, I wonder if the US is getting a nice big piece of the sales for that asian coal boom. WTH, we could dig it up, send it by train over to the west coast, then ship it across the Pacific, and come nowhere near any of those Somali pirates. Think of the money that would save! Think of the jobs saved or created! Think of the profits to be made: right now, thermal coal is selling for $90/mt in China. $69.40/mt in South Africa. But only $63.75/mt for high energy low sulfur Appalachian ( 1mt = 1.1st). There is REAL MONEY to be made in this kind of carbon trading!
A senior shipper said piracy risk cover on a voyage from South Africa to India added $30,000 on top of the basic insurance cost. A further $40,000 to $50,000 had to be added for longer diversions aimed at avoiding pirates.
So the pirates are adding nearly $80 grand in costs per shipment. Thanks. And businessmen are starting to get fed up:
“It is a massive area and there are just not the warships to patrol it,” said Peter Hinchliffe, marine director with the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which represents 75 percent of the global shipping industry.
Hinchliffe said it was vital to ensure the “free and unhindered passage of world trade by sea”, urging the targeting of mother ships.
“We are seeing governments effectively not doing much more than putting a sticking plaster over the problem,” he said.
Others are just burning joss sticks and hoping their karma works out
Some of India’s biggest coal traders said they doubted much could be done to combat piracy.
“We haven’t been affected so far, perhaps we’ve just been lucky,” one major coal trader said.
Oh, about those US coal exports. South Africa is digging up 65 million metric tons of it, and selling 3/4 of that to the far east. I read somewhere the USA mined 1,150 million metric tons of it in 2008, and managed to export just more than 73 million metric tons. Most of that was coking coal used for steel production, which sells for about $16/mt. Thermal coal, the stuff you’d fire the boilers with, goes for $70-100/mt usually. And to top it all off, WE IMPORT COAL. Huh???
Coal imports totaled nearly 31mt, down 2mt from 2008, but in line with expectations.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/03/2010 at 10:35 PM
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices • Pirates, aarrgh! •
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Permalink • govt. agency finds a brand new place and way to spend money they don’t work for.
BATS awarded to The Health and Safety Executive for make work projects spending other people’s money and being just plain schtupid if they believe farmers are dumb enough to buy this. Jeesh. I hope we haven’t sunk to this lunacy back home yet. Notice. I said “yet” coz ya never do know.
Forget my knot
SIR – Yesterday, I received a letter from the Health and Safety Executive entreating me to tie a small piece of green rope (provided) prominently in my yard, as a reminder to “Come home safe” from the potential dangers on the farm. I can apply for up to five more (free) green knots.
I cannot imagine any farmer in the land applying for little green knots to tie on the farm gate. This appears to be just a small example of Government waste.
Caroline Appelbe
Malmesbury, Wiltshire
Posted by peiper
on 03/03/2010 at 12:10 PM
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Daily Life • Government • Health and Safety • Nanny State • Stoopid-People • UK •
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Permalink • Yeah, but will it hook better now?
Richard Gross, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and colleagues calculated that Saturday’s quake shortened the day by 1.26 microseconds.
Earth’s days may have gotten a little bit shorter since the massive earthquake in Chile, but don’t feel bad if you haven’t noticed.
The difference would be only about one-millionth of a second.
Richard Gross, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and colleagues calculated that Saturday’s quake shortened the day by 1.26 microseconds. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.
The length of a day is the time it takes for the planet to complete one rotation — 86,400 seconds or 24 hours.
An earthquake can make Earth rotate faster by nudging some of its mass closer to the planet’s axis
From this the obvious conclusion was that the land involved in the Chile earthquake moved downwards. Since that region is a subduction zone ( duh, the Andes mountains are volcanic, made primarily from andesite, the thick gooey lava that creates really explosive stratovolcanoes that go off in Plinian eruptions, ie BOOM!! ), the earthquake was caused by the Nasca plate under the ocean moving further under the South American Plate.
Bowlers implicitly understand this. The planet now has a lower RG (radius of gyration). That means that more of the mass has been moved closer to the center of the ball. So given this new, lower RG, the earth is spinning a little bit faster. Which could mean it will hook a bit more when it gets traction, and should carry a little better when it finds the pocket. I don’t want to be around when we figure out what the pins are for this analogy.
On the other hand, this bit of subduction was very local in scope, so the DIFF ( the Differential RG ) changed more than the overall RG. Which means the planet’s ability to flare ( move laterally inwards while rolling forward, instead of hooking which is an actual turning-around-the-corner motion ) is likely increased. Think of this earthquake as a new balance hole. So yeah, the planet is now a shorter ball, more suitable for playing on heavily oiled heads.
So, given a faster rotation and thus a shorter day, along with a bit more hook and flare, will the rate of climate change be increased or decreased? Will we get more or less 10-pin leaves?
Posted by Drew458
on 03/03/2010 at 11:39 AM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Bowling Blogging •
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Permalink • rotorhead II
Since Vilmar put up a post today on a new helicopter rotor design, I figured I’d add to the mix with a link and a small bit of science.
If you rub an amber rod with a cat you get static electricity. If you touch that cat to a grounded water pipe in a dark room you get sparks. Then you get your face clawed off as the cat discharges the room at near light speed. Don’t try this experiment at home kiddies, unless you have bandages at the ready and it’s someone else’s cat.
The old amber rod thing is an example of the triboelectric effect. In very dry and dusty environments you can get a similar thing with helicopter rotors. The blade builds up a static charge as it moves through the air, and when the hard metal of the blades impact the dry sand or dust in the air, they discharge a small spark as the sand etches away a tiny little bit of their surface. Perhaps a bit similar to Saint Elmo’s Fire on ships, the effect is very unpredictable, quite beautiful, and can be very dangerous. And it just goes to show that helicopters are high maintenance machines in a desert environment.
You’re thinking, “Oh, Ok, a little spark. No big deal.” But it isn’t just one or two. It’s millions of them at a time. Enough so that the rotors can create a shimmering halo that can be visible for miles. Not what you want when you’re flying in a combat zone at night. The phenomena is nothing new; it’s been known about for years.
A secondary concern with the erosion of metal abrasion strips pertains to the visible signature that occurs when microscopic metallic pieces are eroded away. In the erosion process, they often oxidize, giving off a visible spark and causing a corona effect in sandy environments
Although both Ni and Ti are hard metals, their hardness values are significantly lower than that of sand, which is primarily made up of quartz. This hardness differential results in the excessive erosion/degradation of rotor blades in desert environments. An equally important problem with Ti protection is that a visible corona or halo is generated around the rotor blades at night from the sand impacting the Ti leading edge and causing Ti to spark and oxidize.
To everyone’s surprise, Science, which lives to pin names on things, has not given this variation of the triboelectric effect it’s own name. And it is a variation, since erosion is involved.
Half a year or so ago Michael Yon took some fantastic photos of this effect in action, and after much research decided that it should be called the Kopp-Etchells Effect. I think it’s a good name, and his reasons for it are just as good or better than some beaker shaker’s attempt at immortality. I’ll respect his copyright even though hundreds of other sites haven’t, and instead send you over to take a look. Sure, it’s “only” “a plasma phenomena of ionized particles”, but all cool and rare things deserve a decent name.
This little update link implies that The Powers That Be may be agreeing that he coined a new phrase. Very cool.
Yeah, I’m six months late to this party. So what? It’s the neatest bit of helicopter news I could find on just one cup of coffee.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/03/2010 at 09:51 AM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Military •
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Permalink • ripe berries
Always wondered how they do that - get one object in color and the rest in nearly black and white. Mask and wash?
The whole photo essay, NSFW, is here, proving that I chose a good title for this post.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/03/2010 at 08:50 AM
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •
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Permalink • Skool Daze
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the class room
Teachers leave those kids alone
Hey, teachers! Leave those kids alone!
Posted by Drew458
on 03/03/2010 at 08:29 AM
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •
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Permalink • Just for the hell of it even if I don’t understand the need.
I think they look fine and I guess this is an after the boob-job photo. The paper didn’t publish any before shots.
Anyway, why do women do this? I guess it’s strictly a female thing and if it makes em feel better about themselves, well heck. Go for it.
I just liked their looks and felt like posting them. But golly, £4,800. Each. That’s a pile of dollars. I had no clue or if I had I forgot about it, just how costly this sort of thing is. I think they should have spent it on computers and cars. Shows how different women heaven bless em, are.
Example. A guy with brother wins a lotto. Kinda doubt he’d be willing to pay for those (cough,cough) male enlargements I’ve heard about. Guy wouldn’t even discuss that sort of thing. Would we? Just a though. Oh yeah, another thought worth nothing. Just when was it that women became convinced they needed bigger boobs? And who convinced them? Was it a change in the culture, or had women always had this subject topmost in their minds but never discussed openly?
This isn’t a bad article actually. Human interest for a change before getting back to the usual.
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:00 AM on 03rd March 2010What would you buy if you won the lottery? It’s a question everyone has pondered.
Here, the Mail speaks to 11 winners to find out what they spent their cash on - including a girl who bought her two sisters breast enlargement operations.
Bonnier lasses: Sarah Cockings (centre) from Newcastle won £3million in May 2005 and treated herself and her sisters Emma (left) and Alex to boob jobs costing £4,800 each
Posted by peiper
on 03/03/2010 at 06:49 AM
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Miscellaneous • News-Briefs • UK •
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Permalink • Tuesday - March 02, 2010
better banking?
A couple folks sent me this link, which I saw out at Insty yesterday. It seems Canada’s banks are in great shape, and they weren’t damaged by the “housing crisis” at all. Because they do things differently in Canada. Stronger rules and regulations, no tax write-off for interest, and NO POLITICS involved in the lending process. And, while I have no proof of it at all, I’ve always had the feeling that they have far fewer layabouts than we do. A much smaller permanent victim class.
It’s late, so here’s the link. Interesting short read. What’s the catch? I think there is one, but I can’t quite figure it out right now.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/02/2010 at 11:18 PM
Filed Under: • Finance and Investing • International •
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Permalink • Global Terrorist Gives Terror Warning to America
I know this is dated by a number of days, but I just ran across it and want to bring it to your attention. Meanwhile, it’s 11:30pm here and I have been on the phone for hours trying to get thru to ATT and the wait times and the menus are nothing short of a nightmare. In fact, I’ve been trying to make contact since last week. I need a break for tea. Or coffee with something strong in it. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
So I’ll leave you with this and then perhaps fall down dead asleep waiting on hold while the coffee I haven’t made yet gets cold.
Global Terrorist Gives Terror Warning to America
Family Security Matters 25 February 2010
By Erick StakelbeckThe first things you notice as you approach Saad al-Faqih’s home are the CCTV signs. There are several of them posted around his London property as a warning to potential intruders that their every move is being monitored by security cameras. And for good reason.
Shortly after my cameraman, Ian, and I arrived at al-Faqih’s residence on a recent Sunday afternoon, he informed us that we had just missed a visit by British authorities. “They were here to warn me about an assassination plot being hatched against me by the Saudis,” he said. My initial reaction to that news was that I would definitely not be sitting near the window during our interview.
But I can’t say I was surprised by al-Faqih’s admission. I had come to London to interview men the U.S. government considers extremely dangerous; Islamist ideologues with intimate knowledge of al Qaeda’s inner workings. And according to intelligence sources, al-Faqih surely fits that bill.
A former medical surgeon, Al-Faqih now makes a living as one of the world’s most vociferous enemies of the Saudi regime. He wants to see the Saudi royal family removed from power (by peaceful means, he says) and replaced with an even more extreme Islamic government than the Saudi Wahhabis currently operate.
The Saudis, naturally, do not like this, and have been pressuring Great Britain for years to deport al-Faqih back to Saudi Arabia to stand trial. But the Brits, as I explained in my recent CBN News report and in an appearance with Sean Hannity on Fox News, refuse to extradite al-Faqih and other wanted Islamic terrorists back to their home countries over human rights concerns.
Basically, they fear the Saudis will torture al-Faqih and the others, most of whom gained asylum in the UK during the 1980s and ‘90s and now walk the streets of London and other cities as free men.
Al-Faqih has built up a dubious reputation during his time in Britain. He was designated by the United States and UN as a global terrorist in 2004for his links to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. (...)
Posted by peiper
on 03/02/2010 at 06:17 PM
Filed Under: • RoPMA • Terrorists • UK • USA •
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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