From Way Downtown...Bang!

Via Spencer Ackerman at the Wired Danger Room, the United States Navy has three words for you:  Working. Railgun. Prototype.

The idea behind the Electromagnetic Railgun is to fire a bullet at hypersonic speeds using dozens of megajoules of electricity. The Navy wants it to guard the surface ships of the 2020s, unsubtly boasting to adversaries that messing with the ships will lead to bullets shooting across hundreds of miles of ocean in mere minutes. The Office of Naval Research says it will give sailors “a dramatically increased multimission capability,” like fire support for land strikes over long, long distances beyond the reach of enemy defenses, and defense against “cruise and ballistic missiles” that target ships. No wonder the railgun’s official motto is “Velocitas Eradico” — “Speed Kills.”

Lab tests have pleased the Navy, if not Congress. In December 2010, the Office of Naval Research fired a shot with 33 megajoules of energy, a world record, sending a 23-pound bullet 5500 feet in a single second. The Senate Armed Services Committee still found the science too impractical, and recommended killing the railgun, until a Navy congressional counterstrike revived the program.

Now that the Navy has an actual prototype railgun to shoot, the plan is to hook it up to sensors and cameras to test its performance at 20 and 33 megajoules’ worth of energy. Its goal is produce accurate shots from 50 to 100 nautical mile distances, which the Navy wants by 2017.

Sadly, we don't have 80-ton mechs to mount one of these on yet.  There are also other umm..."technical drawbacks":

Even railgun advocates concede there are a host of other challenges the hypersonic weapon will have to overcome. Its barrel will have to withstand repeated fires without wearing out. (The Navy wants to up firing rates to 10 per minute.) It’s got to fire smart bullets without frying the guidance systems during a blast. (The Navy says both BAE and General Dynamics are starting to design “a next-generation thermally managed launcher.”) And it’s got to be affordable. (The Navy has spent $240 million on the railgun so far, and it expects to spend about as much through 2017 on tests — before buying a single one of the things.)

And yeah, I know, a naval railgun's gonna be a "real big help" in policing the nebulous Af-Pak border regions and all, but there is a civilian technology upside:

Another big problem: the current generation of Destroyers can’t produce the power to fire the railgun without diverting juice from the propulsion systems. One of the goals of the railguns over the next five years is to create workarounds, so the guns will be relevant to their intended ships. Those include “an intermediate energy store using energy-dense batteries, similar to [those on] hybrid cars,” Ellis told reporters on a Tuesday conference call. “That enables us to put the railgun on ships that don’t have larger power supplies.”

Advances in battery storage technology that could say, make electric cars more widespread with batteries that are cheaper and more efficient wouldn't exactly be a bad thing.

Also, railgun. Because RAILGUN, that's why.  Velocitas Eradico, indeed.

StupidiNews, Leap Day Edition!

• Mitt Romney picked up primary wins in both Arizona and Michigan last night, putting him in a strong position heading into next week's Super Tuesday contests.
• President Obama has announced steps to allow civilian prosecutors to take the lead on terrorist trials, effectively going around military tribunals.
• SC GOP Gov. Nikki Haley wants the federal government to pay for deepening Charleston's ports, allowing for larger freight ships to dock.
• German unemployment is at the lowest rate in two decades as the country's economy continues to grow.
• Interpol officials announced the arrest of 25 members of hacker group Anonymous worldwide, the group immediately retaliated with attacks on Interpol's website.

Last Call

This.



The Barack Obama you voted for has been there the entire time, folks.

The Kroog Versus The Publishing Houses Of Austerity

Always a great day whenever I have an excuse to use this:




The Kroog's new book, "End This Depression Now!", hits on April 30.

How bad have things gotten? How did we get stuck in what now can only be called a depression? And above all, how do we free ourselves? Krugman pursues these questions with his characteristic lucidity and insight. He has a powerful message for anyone who has suffered over these past four years—a quick, strong recovery is just one step away, if our leaders can find the "intellectual clarity and political will" to end this depression now. 

Well, anyone who had read his column or this blog know Krugman's solution economically, it's the political part that's not working. I may have to check this one out.

More Both Sides Did It Nonsense

With Republicans saying they would have let the auto industry fail and take hundreds of thousands of jobs with it, Bloomberg's editorial page this morning wants Republicans to admit the plan to bail out the auto industry was absolutely the right thing to do...but the editors can't help but put nearly all of the blame for conditions that necessitated the bailout squarely on the shoulders of those evil, evil auto unions.

Under the circumstances, the combination of bailout and bankruptcy was right. Bankruptcy without public money would have meant destruction rather than restructuring. If conditions in financial markets had been normal, new private creditors might have forced radical, desperately needed changes on GM and Chrysler as part of ordinary bankruptcy proceedings. In 2008 and 2009, this was not possible; private lenders were too distressed even to think about supporting auto companies on the necessary scale.

Either the government had to put money on the table or the companies would be liquidated -- not easy to contemplate in Chrysler’s case and all but inviting disaster in GM’s. Job losses on that scale would have hammered an economy already on its knees. Bush took this view, and so did Obama weeks after being sworn in. The crucial thing was forcing real change on Detroit -- and Obama’s team did so.

The concessions demanded of shareholders, management, creditors and the UAW were severe. Obama has chosen not to mention the role the union played in bringing the industry so low in the first place, and likes to portray the terms extracted from it as a kind of noble sacrifice.

Nobly or otherwise, the union gave up a lot of ground. Although the UAW got shares in both companies, this was in exchange for payments owed to workers’ health-care benefit funds. The union wanted cash, not shares, for those obligations. The bankruptcies shut down inefficient plants, forced out tens of thousands of workers and cut wages for new hires. Some treasured union work rules, including overtime payments after working less than 40 hours a week and the “jobs banks” that paid idled workers for doing nothing, are a thing of the past. 

So the bailout was a good thing, but nearly all the concessions made were made by the unions.  As a result, one of the major paths forward into the middle class through manufacturing jobs was dismantled in a state that badly needed it.  It wasn't the unions who made GM's bad management and design decisions for 20 years, selling nothing but expensive trucks and SUVs at the expense of giving the smaller car market away to Japan and Korea.  It wasn't the unions who refused to jump onto the electric car bandwagon until it was nearly too late.

If anyone actually thought auto unions had too much power in America compared to corporations today, they're the reason why wages have been stagnant, if not falling now for decades.

LibreOffice: Check And Mate

Intel is now on board supporting LibreOffice, the freeware answer to Microsoft Office. While LibreOffice has many supporters, including Google, every major supporting act is a nail in the coffin of Microsoft domination. Microsoft Office has long been the common choice for businesses, with Excel and Word creating an industry standard that locked out competition. Then the freeware community began chipping away at the compatibility issues and sneaky Microsoft tricks to keep the .doc file format protected.

What this means for both businesses and common folks is that there is an acceptable and completely free office suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office and has a similar look and feel. For the most part, the same shortcuts and options exist and an average user can hop on and find their way around with minimum digging. It also means Microsoft is going to struggle to find a niche in this brave new world. Their attempt to enter the mobile phone market has been an epic fail, their software domination is at an end, and their bad PR among customers and the geek community has left them in the cold.

The long-term problem has been Power Point compatibility and performance. I have heard rumors of drastic improvement on the way, but I have yet to test that out. However, according to the site over 80% of readers felt LibreOffice has everything they need in an office suite. Based on the site and the geeky audience, that is pretty compelling. As more businesses adopt LibreOffice and save on licensing fees, that will become the last point of competition between the two. If LibreOffice follows their own trend, they will come out strong and give users what they want.

Fiddling Around

I love me some fiddle music, and I wanted to share a couple of songs that I hold dear to my heart.  If you enjoy music, please give these two a minute, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

First, we have the reason I switched to Celtic fiddle music.  For those of you who don't recognize her, Mairead Nesbitt tours with Celtic Woman (if you watch PBS I bet you recognize her).  Her style, her grace and the energy she brings to her playing is exactly what I like to feel and make my audience feel. I can't imagine not getting a shiver down my spine at the two minute mark. If obsessing over her sound is wrong, then I don't want to be right.



Then we have Leonard Smith, a one-armed fiddler who puts most players I know to shame. For those who don't play, I cannot describe how much attention must be paid to the bow. You are constantly measuring and changing the speed, pressure on the strings, and a dozen other factors. Eventually the hand on the violin is working without a lot of thought, like a good typist doesn't think when they get on a roll. But no matter how long you play, how good you get, you are always focused on your bow. Old Leonard reminds me that you can do it if you are willing to work to find a way. When I want to throw my fiddle down and call it quits, I play this video and it reminds me that love will find a way.

Fire Walker Chronicles: Think Of The Kids!

And suddenly, after cutting millions to Wisconsin schools and social safety net programs, GOP Gov. Scott Walker wants voters to think of how this awful recall fight is hurting kids and old people.

MSNBC’s Willie Geist asked Walker: “You find yourself in the middle of this, mired in a recall election. The latest Marquette poll has you 47 approve, 47 percent disapproves, split right down the middle in the state of Wisconsin. This could be a long fight for you — a special election scheduled to take place in June, a primary in May. How distracted are you from doing the business of Wisconsin by trying to essentially win re-election in the middle of your term?” (Note: The May and June dates are not yet officially declared by state election officials, but are the likely outcome of the administrative process.)

“Well, we’re focused,” Walker responded, “but it’s a huge distraction, not just for me, for the legislature. I mean, it’s $9 million of taxpayers’ money just to run this. Think about the number of kids we could help, think of the number of seniors we could help in our state with $9 million that we didn’t have to waste on this — this frivolous recall election.

And after taking big money from the Koch Brothers to save his bacon, who have sworn to help Walker destroy the state's public unions,  he has this to say about outside money:

“But really, I mean, in the end, I think it’s amazing, after a year of being attacked by out of state special interests, the tens of millions of dollars that were poured in, the fact that we’re ahead of any of the Democrats in the race I think bodes well for the election."

Yes, because there's no outside money coming to help Walker.  Not a dime, right?  Hey, you know what?  That $9 million Walker's complaining about?  That's about what he's gotten from Koch to run ads in the state so far.  Funny how that works.

Mendacious ass.

Stuck In The Middle With Chris

The reason I don't watch Sunday shows is that they are basically 2 hours of silly, mendacious false equivalences used to bash President Obama.  Up With Chris Hayes is a nice change of pace most of the time, but there are still segments where Chris tries to impress his right-leaning panelists by feeding them red meat.  Sunday's final half-hour was a prime cut of this, as Deaniac83 notes over at The People's View:

At a time when the entire GOP is busy constructing a fictional Barack Obama that doesn't actually exist, some on the "Left" have their own construction of yet another fictional Barack Obama. As opposed to the peacenik terrorist-loving Barack Obama constructed by the Right, the Left's fictional version of the president presides over a police state America. On his MSNBC show "Up with Chris Hayes," Chris Hayes launches a fresh attack on President Obama's "national security state." In this version, President Obama commits Syrian-style journalist-killing atrocities by... drum rolls please... prosecuting irresponsible leaks under specific, legally defined - with fully protected defendants' rights - circumstances. 

Yeah, Chris Hayes went there, equating the prosecution of leakers like Bradley Manning with the brutal and bloody deaths of journalists covering Syria's deadly al-Assad regime crackdown. Look Chris, I like your show. It's still head and shoulders above the pablum served up by your sister network, NBC.  But as much as you pride yourself on journalistic accuracy and deep drilling on subjects that cable news doesn't otherwise touch, you blew this one.

It is one thing to rigorously pursue disclosure in government business, and work within a framework of law and democracy to expand that framework in the public interest. It's quite another - and more than irresponsible - to equate the leak-prosecutions of individuals with their right to defend themselves in a court of law secured with open war on citizens and journalists in the cross-hairs of totalitarian regimes. It dishonors the memory and the sacrifice of the brave journalists who risk and give their lives in those regions by comparing their difficulties with a reporter sitting in a fancy press briefing room throwing out questions at the president's press secretary. It makes a mockery of the injustice facing those journalists on the frontlines there to equate it with legal prosecutions of leakers here. Perhaps more sadly, it harms the very effort to make our government more open when comparisons are taken to the level of the absurd.

And if there's anyone in the cable news business who should know better, it's Hayes. Sadly, this isn't his first slip, especially when it comes to guests like Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald.  There's a reason I've been glued to 4 hours of Melissa Harris-Perry, and ambivalent at best about Up With Chris Hayes.  There's no contesting that the former is worth your time, as the professor does an admirable job of flagging down such notions.   The latter, however, could stand to take a few notes on the subject.

StupidiNews!

• Polls in Arizona show Mitt Romney with a big lead going into today's primary, but Romney's home state of Michigan will be a much closer contest with Rick Santorum.
• Pennsylvania Republicans are set to pass a major abortion restriction bill with 22 pages of new measures that women and doctors will have to navigate before the procedure.
• A federal judge refused an immediate injunction to stop the Commodity Futures Trading Corporation from regulating "excessive" oil speculation, but strongly hinted he would side with Wall Street.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government won a major vote backing the Greek bailout with more than 80% approval of the Bundestag.
• A Linux computer the size of a thumb drive is now available for pre-order from European electronics firm FXI.

Last Call

Via Tbogg, Mitt Romney once again commits the worst sin a politician can make:  lying badly enough to get caught red-handed.

Romney recalled he was “probably 4 or something like that” the day of the Golden Jubilee, when three-quarters of a million people gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American automobile.

“My dad had a job being the grandmaster. They painted Woodward Ave. with gold paint,” Romney told a rapt Tea Party audience in the village of Milford Thursday night, reliving a moment of American industrial glory.

The Golden Jubilee described so vividly by Romney was indeed an epic moment in automotive lore.

The parade included one of the last public appearances by an elderly Henry Ford.

Only one problem with Romney's reminiscing...

And it took place June 1, 1946 — fully nine months before Romney was born. 

It's like Mitt's plan is to run the worst Presidential campaign in modern history so that the country ends up with Santorum in the White House, and he's doing a bang-up job of it.

Drive Thru Stupidity

OREM — It almost sounds too bizarre to be true, a Utah County teen is under arrest, accused of robbing two banks in less than an hour.

Authorities said a 16-year old boy allegedly took his mother's car without permission, drove to a nearby Central Bank branch and pulled into the drive up lane.

"He sent a note through the drive-thru canister telling the teller to send him money," said Orem Police Sgt. Craig Martinez. "He inferred on the note that he had a weapon."

After complying with the young man's demands, the tellers contacted police and were able to give a detailed description of the vehicle, including the license plate number. But before investigators were able to track the boy down, he allegedly used the same modus operandi at an America First Credit Union branch just 20 minutes later.

The article makes it clear Mom knew nothing about what her son was up to.  Still, it's sad that he will enter life with this kind of black mark on his record, because nobody got a win from this.  I'm honestly surprised there weren't charges pressed on the mother simply because of his age and that he used her car in the crime.

I'm also surprised that it worked.  I'd have sent a note back saying we'd be right with him after calling 911 from behind our bullet proof glass, and provide a picture of the car.  Better luck next time, Buttercup.

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Screaming Kids Part II

COMMENTARY | Grant Central Pizza of Atlanta, Georgia has finally done the unforgivable -- they have printed a disclaimer upon their menus asking parents to remove their unruly children from the restaurant. Why is this so unforgivable? Because in this modern age, no one is allowed to notice, let alone comment upon, children causing a disruption. Walk into a Wal-Mart at any time of the day or night and you will hear a cacophony of screams coming from children scattered around the store. Like sirens they blare unhindered by the apparently deaf parents.

When did such total lack of social consideration become our sentence? My father informs me I threw a temper tantrum once in public only once. I don't remember it, nor do I know what happened afterward, but I grew up knowing public displays of temper, aggression, or screeching were prohibited.

In recent years I have become a practical recluse in attempt to avoid shrieks of children in restaurants and theaters. If I am having a meal with friends and I have to shout over howling children or dodge projectiles lobbed at my head I am unlikely to return to an establishment that attracts such clientele. I was in a Trader Joe's recently and had to escape when I could no longer navigate around the toddlers with their individual carts and their middle aged mothers who didn't think it necessary to keep traffic flowing.

Some would label the author as judgmental or uptight, but I agree.  I can't go anywhere without someone's unattended brats opening packages, destroying property, or annoying the hell out of everyone around them.  Not all kids are this way, but plenty are.  It's nice to see an adult-only or well-behaved-kids-only policy in place once in a while.  The world is full of places to take children, there is no reason whatsoever to hate a business that caters to a legitimate desire.

More articles and studies are telling us how unhealthy it is to multitask and let the world pass you by.  We need to unplug and have real interactions with people.  It's difficult to enjoy a quiet, calming meal with someone's kids screaming next to you.  It's hard to unplug from your own children, but dealing with  strangers makes it impossible.  Especially strangers who came to the restaurant to dump their kids on the village so they can unwind.

Peace and quiet: it's a good thing.

Happy Belated Birthday To The Man In Black

Many thanks to Wired, who reminded me about Johnny Cash's birthday and A Boy Named Sue. I'm in my thirties and I still laugh when I hear "how do you DO? My name is SUE! Now you're gonna DIE!" Cash had a style all his own, and this was one of those perfect marriages between the right singer and the right song. Dry and with the air of one who is discreetly amused, Cash could tell a hell of a story.

In February 1969, Johnny Cash had a party at his house in Hendersonville, TN. As the evening went on, the party turned into a guitar pull, with some of Johnny’s friends trying out their latest songs. “Bob Dylan sang ‘Lay Lady Lay,’” recalled Cash. “Kris Kristofferson sang ‘Me and Bobby McGee.’ Joni Mitchell sang ‘Both Sides Now.’ Graham Nash sang ‘Marrakesh Express.’ And Shel Silverstein sang ‘A Boy Named Sue.’”

Cash loved Silverstein’s tune and asked him to write down the words. He might not have realized it then, but the song was about to change his life. He said, “We were leaving the next day to go to California and June said, ‘Take the words to ‘A Boy Named Sue’ to California. You’ll want to record that at San Quentin.’ I said, ‘I don’t have time to learn that song before the show.’ And she said, ‘Well, take them anyway.’”

Despite reading the lyrics, Cash gave the song his all, investing it with an actor’s bravado. There’s also a spontaneity and joy about the performance, with Cash obviously amused by Silverstein’s clever lyrics. And the inmates loved it, whooping and laughing along, especially when Cash shouted the lines, “My name is Sue! How do you do? Now you’re gonna die!” From the ovation at the song’s end, Cash suspected he might have a hit on his hands.

GOP Stupidity? Bring It On.

Author Robert Creamer agrees with what I've been saying for a while: GOP stupidity has jumped the shark to such a degree that it is actually a benefit to Dems.

Mr. Creamer starts with the obvious birth control issue, which has by far done the most damage.  Republicans generally play it safe and pick on minorities who don't have the numbers to come together and make them pay at the polls for their ignorance.  Now they've taken on an issue that affects women on a huge scale, and instead of backing away from the minefield they are charging right in.  Further down in the article he covers a few smaller or less recent mistakes that are piling up.  They are falling apart, and it's starting to show.  Choosing between Planned Parenthood and Forced Parenthood isn't much of a contest.

Taking on half the country's medical rights is stupid.  It's a texbook bad move.  It's right up there with a land war in Asia, or going against a Sicilian when death is on the line.  It's worse than messing around with Jim or saying "I'll be right back" if you suspect a killer in a hockey mask is on the scene.  Yet these fools are so proud of their righteousness that they are forgetting their job is to take care of Americans.  All of them.  And until they figure it out, they are doing more harm to their reputation than any mudslinging from the left could ever accomplish.

Not all women are pro-choice, as is their right.  However, the numbers show that virtually every woman supports contraception, and the majority of men.  The GOP attack on that has brought the cheers to silence, and made many women realize that our medical rights are in jeopardy.  It's not just abortion now, and that has led to many questions and clarifications.  If the two issues become permanently linked this could be the event that starts the return to medical services for women.  They had a chance to ease up.  Any one candidate could have stepped in with the voice of reason and scooped up millions of votes.  Instead, this double down epic fail shame spiral is what Republicans have to cope with.  Creamer's article does mention the trickle-down effect to all Republicans.  I had been more focused on all things presidential, but of course he's right.

The saving grace is that our votes are secret and personal.  Voters will have the privacy they need to make candidates feel the backlash.  Of course, it's an entirely different matter altogether as to whether Republicans will attribute it to their misogyny, or if they will blame it on something else.  Right now, I'll be satisfied if they have the debate while looking for a new job.