New U.S. Army Helicopters Unsafe to Fly on Hot Days
November 11th, 2007This is my favorite story today.
Via: Boston Globe:
The Army is spending $2.6 billion on hundreds of European-designed helicopters for homeland security and disaster relief that have a crucial flaw: They are not safe to fly on hot days, according to an internal report obtained by the Associated Press.
While the Army scrambles to fix the problem, potentially adding millions to the taxpayer cost, at least one high-ranking lawmaker is calling for the deal to be scrapped.
During flight tests in Southern California in mild 80-degree weather, cockpit temperatures in the UH-72A Lakota soared above 104 degrees, the point at which the Army says the communication, navigation, and flight-control systems can overheat and shut down.
No cockpit equipment failed during the nearly 23 hours of testing, according to the report, prepared for the Army in July. But it concluded that the aircraft “is not effective for use in hot environments.”
The Army said that to fix the problem it will take the highly unusual step of adding air conditioners to many of the 322 helicopters ordered.
Chinese Sub Pops Up in Middle of U.S. Navy Exercise
November 11th, 2007There are a few navy.mil readers who haven’t been blocked from reading Cryptogon… So, any guesses on why that Chinese sub didn’t show up on active sonar? (Not holding my breath for a response.)
Update: The Story Appears to be Over a Year Old
Via: Daily Mail:
When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed.
At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world’s only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.
That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.
American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk – a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.
By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.
According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy.
The Americans had no idea China’s fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a threat.
One Nato figure said the effect was “as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik” – a reference to the Soviet Union’s first orbiting satellite in 1957 which marked the start of the space age.
The incident, which took place in the ocean between southern Japan and Taiwan, is a major embarrassment for the Pentagon.
The lone Chinese vessel slipped past at least a dozen other American warships which were supposed to protect the carrier from hostile aircraft or submarines.
And the rest of the costly defensive screen, which usually includes at least two U.S. submarines, was also apparently unable to detect it.
According to the Nato source, the encounter has forced a serious re-think of American and Nato naval strategy as commanders reconsider the level of threat from potentially hostile Chinese submarines.
Military Releases Heavily Redacted Report on Directed Energy Weapon Accident
November 10th, 2007Don’t microwave me, bro!
Via: Wired:
Seven months after an airman was burned in a test of the nonlethal heat beam, the Air Force has released a heavily redacted version of the mishap report that reveals few details about what happened.
The military has bent over backwards to demonstrate to the public that the Active Denial System (ADS), a millimeter wave directed energy weapon that heats up the top layer of skin, is a well-tested nonlethal weapon, and not a scary microwave weapon with unknown health effects. For example, last month, they staged demonstrations of ADS for reporters at Quantico.
That’s why the Air Force Safety Center’s decision to sanitize the report is a big setback. Full of dark black lines, redacted pages, and white space through anything that would actually provide any substance on what happened was described, the best I can get out of the report is that the mishap was a combination of technical problems with the system possibly compounded with operator error (but it’s not clear from the redacted version).
…
The injury cost the military $17,748.00.
Related: Several Posts on Cryptogon About ADS
Cryptogon Readers Contribute $50 and $100!
November 10th, 2007Eileen sent $50 and Cryingfreeman sent $100. These are core contributors. Their generosity is astonishing. Thank you.
Lifelines for the Drowning Dollar
November 10th, 2007Investing Very Close to Home: Shelter, Water, Food, Security/Community.
Collapsitalism: What I’d Keep in My Collapse Portfolio: Analysis on how to protect your assets (and profit) from this dire situation.
Investing in Oil, Food, Alternative Energy, Gold or Water? Yes, All of the Above: Many eggs, many baskets.
Cryptogon’s Strategic Bearish Call on the Dollar, April 2007: “I’m not trying to make traders out of you guys, or frighten anyone, but there is a good chance that we are about to lose cabin pressure on the U.S. Dollar.”
Via: Wall Street Journal:
Dollar weakness is neutralizing the positive effects of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cuts. As the dollar spirals downward, weakened by Washington’s indifference and market expectations of more rate cuts, liquidity drains from the U.S. into inflation hedges like gold and, in the case of entrepreneurship and risk-taking capital, to countries with strengthening currencies. This drain undercuts the growth impact of the Fed’s recent rate cuts, complicating the recovery from the August credit-market turbulence. Question: What’s harder to sell than a complex loan during a credit crunch? A dollar-denominated one.
Foreign countries are suffering the opposite phenomenon. Global investors want to buy more in strong-currency countries, heating up those countries’ economies, land values and stock markets. If their central banks hike rates, as China has been doing and Australia did on Nov. 7, it invites even more capital inflows in search of higher yields and currency appreciation, reinforcing the upward currency spiral.
Chart: The Cost of the War in Iraq vs. Spending on Solar Energy Research
November 10th, 2007In The Power Crisis Mythology, the 40% Efficient Solar Cell and the Cost of the War in Iraq, I wrote:
Spectrolab, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing, has developed a solar cell technology that has a conversion efficiency of 40.7%. They accomplished this with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The annual budget of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory: $210 million
The cost of America’s war in Iraq per day: $300 million
The U.S. spends more on the war in Iraq in one day (about $300 million) than it does on the ANNUAL BUDGET for the primary government laboratory that is tasked with renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. As absurd as that is, a recipient of a grant from this lab has developed a 40% efficient solar cell.
What if that lab had the funding equivalent of what the U.S. is spending on the war over a period of two or three days?
In that post, I also wrote that the energy scarcity argument is like the American dream: you’d have to be asleep to believe it. But that was far too kind.
You’d have to be retarded. Or in on the swindle.
The world is suffering under a good, old fashioned shakedown. Think about this obscene chart the next time you fill your vehicle with gasoline, or the lights go out, or your power bill goes up, or smog burns your throat:
Clean energy is expensive? Hmm.
Via: Solar Power Rocks:
These figures are in millions. The source for energy R&D expenditures is from the National Council for Science and the Environment. Take a look here: http://www.ncseonline.org/Affiliates/Handbook/cms.cfm?id=904
Though the war in Iraq now costs about $120B a year, two authors (one a Nobel prize winner) estimates the total cost of this war exceeds 2 Trillion Dollars: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15499.htm
…
That $2,000,000,000,000? Well, that amount of money could’ve built solar thermal plants here that would have provided energy for 2/3rds of our nation’s energy demand…
More: Energy Scarcity vs. Cost of the War in Iraq
Wave Power Attracts Investors
November 10th, 2007BIG investors.
And it’s fascinating, the shit-for-brains level of context that Business Week manages here: “…if wave power becomes commercially viable.”
A far more fascinating question is why and how it didn’t become viable over forty years ago?! Who died, and who made a killing?
Think of it another way: The U.S. landed guys on the moon—decades ago—but building a linear induction wave buoy is somehow a big engineering challenge…
Uh, duh, ok, thanks Business Week. Yep, uh, duhhh, wave power = hard. Thx again.
Via: Business Week:
Anyone who has ever been swimming in the ocean knows the awesome power of waves: They can toss large boats about like bathtub toys even during mild weather, or crush buildings to bits during storms. As oil prices rise and concerns over the environmental consequences of burning fossil fuels keep growing, more companies are becoming interested in capturing the energy contained in those massive walls of water to help meet the ever-rising demand for electric power.
Although there are companies currently working on devices to capture the power of waves, their technologies are not nearly as refined as those for wind and solar power. They are beginning to attract the interest of large electric utilities and industrial equipment manufacturers hoping to cash in if wave power becomes commercially viable.
Like it or Not, $100 Oil Forces New Energy Policy on U.S.
November 10th, 2007“The reality is that the oil companies are going to lift our wallets and then flip us upside down to shake loose any change that may have remained in our pockets.”
—From an upcoming Cryptogon essay
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. BP solar panels, Chevron wave power, etc… Who knows? Cheney’s Own Organic Organs and Entrails?
The usual suspects are going to be powering clean green fascism, alright, but there’s still a lot of oil to be sold at $100 or more per barrel.
Via: USA Today:
The reality is that $96 oil will accomplish more than all of the energy bills passed in the last generation combined. Painful, yes. Troubling, absolutely. But perhaps the only force powerful enough to alter the way America fuels its economy.
Vaccine Causes AIDS/HIV Related Infection that Spreads Through the Body via Common Cold Virus
November 10th, 2007This is THE most terrifying story that I have ever seen.
Of course, They’re saying that V520 vaccine trial was a failure.
But let’s boil this down. What did They actually wind up with after two decades of research?
V520 amounts to an AIDS/HIV related infection that spreads through the body via the common cold virus.
This was no failure. Far from it.
Via: Time Magazine:
It’s not yet clear why V520 didn’t work, but one theory involves its vector, or delivery vehicle. Like a number of other AIDS vaccines in development, Merck’s drug used the common cold virus to transport its payload — three synthetic HIV genes — into the body’s cells. What makes the adenovirus ideal for the task is precisely the reason colds make us so miserable — once inside a host, the cold virus infects cells and starts to replicate quickly. The down side to that efficiency, however, is that cold viruses are so common that most people have developed a certain level of tolerance to them; if the adenovirus fails to excite the immune system, then any bugs piggybacked on the virus, such as HIV genes, will also slip past immune defenses. That’s exactly what appears to have happened in the Merck trial: People with the highest pre-existing immunity to the common cold also had the highest rates of infection with HIV.
More: Vaccine Failure Exposes Aussies to AIDS Risk
More: Vaccine Development Or Bioweapon Trial?
Related: Endgame [Must Watch]
Related: Over 1000 Imbeciles Volunteer to be Poisoned by Quacks as Heavily Armed Cops Keep Watch
Research Credit: Ebbing
Arraignment and Federal Indictments for Bernard Kerik, Close Giuliani Associate and Botched Nominee to Head Department of Homeland Security
November 9th, 2007Tax evasion, corruption, mafia connected construction businesses: Fuggetaboutit.
Windfall stock options payout on taser related swindling: $6 million.
A filthy, sycophantic crook like this almost becoming the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: Priceless.
Via: AP:
Bernard Kerik, the police commissioner under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani who nearly became head of the Homeland Security Department, will surrender to authorities Friday to be arraigned on criminal charges, an official said Thursday.
The federal law enforcement official said prosecutors plan to announce the filing of an indictment against Kerik at a news conference Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of grand jury proceedings.
Prosecutors have been presenting evidence to a federal grand jury in White Plains for several months to consider charges against Kerik including tax evasion and corruption.
A second person familiar with the investigation, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, said Kerik will turn himself in Friday morning and be arraigned at noon in U.S. District Court. He would not disclose the specific charges.
Several calls to Kerik’s lawyer, Kenneth Breen, were not immediately returned.
Authorities have alleged that Kerik took tens of thousands of dollars in services from benefactors and never reported it as income. Earlier this year, he rejected a plea deal, and his attorney insisted he had done nothing wrong.
An indictment would be the latest chapter of a downfall that began within days of Kerik’s nomination in 2004 to head the Department of Homeland Security. At the time, he was billed by the former mayor as a no-nonsense, self-made lawman who helped restore calm following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
A federal indictment of Kerik could complicate matters for Giuliani as the first presidential primaries draw near.
The ex-mayor frequently says that he made a mistake in recommending Kerik to be Homeland Security chief, but that might not be enough to avoid the political damage of a drawn-out criminal case involving his one-time protege.
During a campaign stop in Dubuque, Iowa, on Thursday, Giuliani was asked whether he still stands by Kerik. He sidestepped that question and said the issue has to be decided by the courts.
“A lot of public comment about it is inconsistent with its getting resolved in the right way in the courts,” Giuliani said.
A former undercover police officer with a bodybuilder’s physique and a knack for charming people in high places, Kerik has since been hit with a string of revelations about personal and professional improprieties.
His nomination was confronted with news reports about stock-option windfalls, his connections with people suspected of doing business with the mob and overlapping extramarital affairs with two women: Judith Regan, the publisher of his memoir, and a city correction officer. The liaisons reportedly occurred in an apartment near ground zero that had been set aside for rescue workers.
Kerik, 51, who married his current wife in 1998 and has two children with her, apparently became close with Regan while writing “The Lost Son,” in which he described being abandoned by his prostitute mother.
Kerik rose from cop to Giuliani’s correction commissioner in the late 1990s. From there, he became police commissioner and later went to work in Iraq rebuilding the country’s police force.
Then came the failed Homeland Security nomination. Democrats who opposed the nomination focused on Kerik’s recent windfall from exercising stock options in a stun-gun company that did business with the department. His take: $6.2 million.
Days after President Bush introduced Kerik as his nominee, Kerik announced he was withdrawing his name because of tax issues involving his former nanny. But by then, state investigators were already aware of the expensive renovations done to his Bronx apartment in 1999, including built-in cabinets and a rotunda with a marble entryway. They alleged the work was paid for by Mafia-connected builders who sought his help winning city contracts.
Giuliani was forced to testify before a state grand jury in a case that resulted in Kerik pleading guilty last year to accepting illegal gifts while on the city payroll. The plea spared Kerik jail time and preserved his new career as a security consultant, but his name was quietly removed from a downtown jail named in his honor.
