The Daily Brief

Via TJIC: Scouts follow training and common sense, flim at 11:00.

Eight Scouts, ages 11 to 14, and their three adult leaders emerged unharmed from the dense forest Monday morning after an intense overnight search by 28 rescuers and nine dogs.

Rescuers who were not, as it turns out, were not needed.  They rescued themselves.

The Scouts and their leaders “did just what they were supposed to do, they hunkered down,” said Rodney Jones, assistant scoutmaster of Troop 217, from Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Scouts awoke at 7:30 a.m. Monday and started packing up, Jones said. One of the leaders spotted a power line, which the group followed to a cabin. There they encountered a meter reader for the local power utility, who took them to the Cruso Fire Department, the search effort’s headquarters, said fire department spokeswoman Charity Sharp

In the immortal words of The Scott Miller

To all you “crunchy granola suites” out there, when you’re having a meadow party and you have your kegs but no one can build a fire because it’s raining, who can?
This scout can.

When you’re drowning after diving into the town duck pond drunk as a skunk, who can save you?
This scout can.

When you’re moving home from college and you’re trying to tie down your Morrisey poster so it won’t fly off your parents’ car, who can?
This scout can.

When it does fly off your car and causes a huge accident, who can treat the wounds of your soon to be accusers?
This scout can.

Who can out-smoke, out-drink, out-cuss and then (and only then) out-argue you about the worthiness of The Boy Scouts?
This scout can.

Carnival of Space – Week 21 is up at Why Homeschool.

My favorite is the Cynic’s post

The Space Cynics getting tired of “announcements” of great things space agencies intend to do that are 20+ years from now (and somehow never seem to materialize…) in their post Anyone Can Take a Reservation.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

To all who shall see these presents, greeting: Know Ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the fidelity and abilities of …

You know the rest.  Congratulations to Sergeant First Class Reece Gordon – the finest SSG SFC it is my pleasure to know.

He’s a hell of a good son as well.

Doesn’t look old enough for three up, two down, does he?

It’s sadly been taken down but there was a DailyKos story whose protagonist clearly saw this ad in the Navy Times …

Global organization has a full-time Landing Signals Officer (LSO) position available. This position is responsible for providing quality guidance to a variety of aircraft.

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Support for landing aircraft including guidance, advice and handling.
• Managing small teams during the performance of the primary job.
• Maintain technical documentation for the Landing Signals Department.
• Other duties as required.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science in related field of study or equivalent work experience.
• Knowledge and demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Office.
• Some knowledge of Naval customs preferred but not necessary.

Qualifications

• Capable of working with minimal supervision.
• Self-confidence with ability to effectively manage conflict resolution and problem solve
• Strong customer service skills.
• Knowledge and demonstrated proficiency directing landing operations at least two types of the following naval or Marine aircraft;

• F/A-18 (all versions)
• AV-8B Harrier II
• AH-1 Cobra (all versions)
• CH-46E Sea Knight (all versions)
• CH-53E Super Stallion (all versions)
• C-2 Greyhound
• E-2 Hawkeye
• H-3 Sea King

Apply to US Navy, Department of Recruiting, Washington D.C. See Req No ID10t484757578 at www.navy.com

The United States Navy is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, affiliation or dietary preferences.

This is what defeat sounds like …

… in Phnom Penh former Cambodian prime minister Sirik Matak wrote to John Gunther Dean, the American ambassador, turning down his offer of evacuation:

Dear Excellency and Friend:

I thank you very sincerely for your letter and for your offer to transport me towards freedom. I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion. As for you, and in particular for your great country, I never believed for a moment that you would have this sentiment of abandoning a people which has chosen liberty. You have refused us your protection, and we can do nothing about it. You leave, and my wish is that you and your country will find happiness under this sky. But, mark it well, that if I shall die here on the spot and in my country that I love, it is no matter, because we all are born and must die. I have only committed this mistake of believing in you [the Americans].

Please accept, Excellency and dear friend, my faithful and friendly sentiments.

S/Sirik Matak

Prince Sirik Matak and the officials that remained along with him, were executed by the Khmer Rouge on April 21, 1975, in Phnom Penh.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

First it’s bullets that have never been fired, now it’s this

The only moon landing in history is NASA’s Apollo expedition in 1968.

AFP .. you guys have a serious problem.

Subject Hat Tip

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

When Alberto Gonzales shows up for work next week he’ll be greeted at the door and politely reminded that he resigned. His response of course will be: I don’t recall doing that.

Update: To my regret this humor is not original – I heard the line from a caller on The Dennis Miller Show before lunch today. I should have attributed it. Apologies are due to anyone who read this and thought “my he’s a witty fellow”.

Why didn’t the Washington Post run this cartoon? A sex joke. What’s the joke? Lola Granola is now a Radical Muslim and Steve won’t be getting any.

Geez Louise. Yes, people have feelings and lord knows we wouldn’t want to offend anyone – they might cancel their subscription and the newspapers can’t afford to loose too many subscribers.

Islam is a big grown up religion – if a billion faithful want to be part of the 21st century (and I think that they do) then they can stand a few gibes and jests.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Why is the West going to win**? Because more of our soldiers are like this, than not.

“The first time you get blown up by an IED, you’re like, Dude, this is badass! but after that you’re like, This really is not cool at all anymore. But riding out there, getting shot at, shooting back — that doesn’t get old.”

It’s more than just having bad-ass soldiers. Alison didn’t get that attitude from the Army – she carried it there from the civilian world.  The Army merely honed it to a fine edge and gave it direction.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Via.

*if you subscribe to the idea that there is a conflict between the West and humorless zealots**.

** In my world not all humorless zealots use Islam as a cover. There are plenty of other types of zealots that could bring the whole kit and caboodle to a grinding halt.

Shannon Love at Chicago Boyz has a good question

Some time ago, I made a humorous throwaway observation that Democrats didn’t believe in individual freedom of choice except in matters pertaining to sexuality.

At the time, I thought the statement a mere comedic exaggeration. As a libertarian, I consider each political ideology a mixed bag. Each political group gives freedom with one hand and takes it away with the other. I assumed that a little honest examination of all the Left’s policy positions would quickly reveal many areas completely unrelated to sex in which the Left advocated letting individuals make the decisions about what or what not to do.

However, to my disquiet, I cannot think of a single one! I honestly cannot think of a single non-sexual area in which the contemporary Left advocates letting individuals decide what or what not to do.

Can anyone else? I’m really serious about this. If you can think of an area please say so. If you can’t, ask around your leftist friends and contact me at shannonlove-at-chicagoboyz.net.

More at the link – it’s a good question. The people who read this blog are pretty smart … what do y’all think?

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Rave reviews – no death threats

I wanna be like Osama
I wanna wear designer clothes beneath a robe
While my lackeys loom like vultures, I’ll declare a clash of cultures,
Kill civilians by the millions round the globe
Grow a beard down to my navel, conquer YouTube, get on cable,
And be wealthier than any man I know
Please make me like Osama B.
With an Al Jazeera Show!

The best defense against humorless zealots is making fun of them.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Carnival of Space #17 is posted at The Planetary Society Blog – hosted by the gracious Emily Lakdawalla.

XCOR needs an aerodynamicist with trans-sonic and supersonic experience. This person must be a US Citizen or Green Card holder due to ITAR restrictions. Aleta writes

One would like to think that such exists in America, but so far I have no evidence to support the assumption. We do have resumes from people who are qualified, but none is a U.S. citizen, or holds a “Green Card.” We can’t hire foreigners. The U.S. State Department says what we do comes under ITAR, so we cannot hire qualified non-citizen engineers, neither can we sell our products to anyone who is not a U.S. citizen or entity. I just this morning had to turn down a job from a Brit who wants to set a world record with one of our engines. That is several million dollars in revenue that will now not come to the U.S.

But that’s beside the point at this moment. XCOR needs to find someone who has some experience with trans-sonic and supersonic design. I have written to and called many schools, colleges and universities. Crickets chirping. With a single exception, the University of Maryland, not one professor or teacher or college or university has returned a query. I understand that they graduate students, but apparently helping them find jobs is beyond the academic ken.

For the past year I have placed ads everywhere: Av Week, ASME, SAE, all the alphabet organizations and associations remotely connected with aerodynamics. The result: resumes for everything _but_ an aerodynamicist. I have engaged three head hunters, several job shops and other professional recruiting organizations. The score so far: 0.

Not that I think that any qualified person is reading this humble blog – but how nice if they were! No – I find it alarming that XCOR – a place just chock full of smart people doing really cutting edge stuff – can’t find such a person.

What the hey?

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Update:

I dashed off a quick note to Aleta Jackson commentating that by looking or a ‘new or recent college graduate’ they might be restricting themselves a bit. I’m assumed that the a) the lady wants to hear from me and b) I know their business better than they.  I was, essentially, being a nosy parker.

Aleta Jackson – she really is a nice lady – wrote back

Thanks, I think Jerry noted that we are also seeking gray haired people too. 🙂 Over forty, over fifty, over sixty all welcome here! We have been actively looking for someone with considerable experience. The results: “I don’t want to move again.” “I have family and they are happy where we are.” “I’ve taken up another vocation.” “I haven’t done anything except theoretical stuff for 20 years.” “Hmmm, I guess I shouldn’t have switched to (name a different discipline).” Tjose are quotes, and I am not making this stuff up. I don’t have time to play mind games with folks.

My frustration level is beyond my ability to articulate. I’m not mad at anyone, but throughly sad that pioneers are so difficult to locate, and that most of those who are, aren’t allowed to work here. One poor Russian rocket engineer is driving a cab in Canada because he can’t be hired by a U.S. company. That’s a criminal waste of talent.

Sorry, didn’t mean to rant. Thanks for the thoughts. We really do want someone with experience and ability, and they can be 20 or 80 and we won’t care.

She also adds that they have great benefits.

ITAR isn’t only to blame and I am by no means an expert. But I’ve had to live with that law at the worker-bee level for a few years now. Without reflecting on it’s utility I have to say that as implemented it hampers small organizations and inconveniences large ones. The latter charge it to the cost of doing business and move on. The former … well it hurts, plenty.

Things in Iraq have come to a sorry pass – Coalition forces have resorted to throwing shiny bullets at civilians ..

An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Update: I’ve been reading other blogs around the internets talking about this. The tone is a kind of merry “ha-ha the press-tards didn’t get it right” kinda deal which I found funny at first but now I don’t know ..

We can assume the picture is planted – a set of un-fired, nay, almost polished, bullets does make it seem likely. Consider that the agit-prop might be aimed at people that are neither thee nor me;

• Fence-sitting Muslims.
• Persons of Quality in Christendom who Matter*.

Neither class is familiar with firearms except in the movies. This is what bullets look like to them. Show either of these two groups a chunk of flattened lead and it does not have the same visual punch.

The point of all this then, is to show a poor old woman whose house was hit by gunfire. Mission accomplished.

The damage done, the image lingers in spite of it’s veracity.

Reality doesn’t matter – perception does.

*I’m reading Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle – the 17th century lingo is getting to me.

I read this guy at LiveJournal. Don’t know who he is, or why he is doing this, but every day or so he posts in a self-contained story in a paragraph.

This one caught my eye

After taping them under the table, Greg ran back into the woods and set up the tripod. He waited forty minutes, then a family showed up.

Click the link above to read more.

The 14th Carnival of Space is hosted by Universe Today.

Submissions for the Carnival of Space are due to: CarnivalOfSpace@gmail.com by 6:00 PM (PST) on the Wednesday evening of the week. It will be appreciated if the submissions come in earlier. The carnival will be posted on Thursday. Please send the following information:

Title of Post
URL of Post
Name of Blog
URL of Blog
Brief summary of the post

If you haven’t read any blog carnivals before, please read What is a Blog Carnival.

Here are the expectations for carnival participants.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Know what the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story is? A fairy tale begines ‘Once upon a time’. A sea story begins ‘Listen up cause this is no sh**’.

Jarhead is a lotta things. It’s a great bit of writing. It humps along at a good clip, it’s got some things to say and it says them in an entertaining way. It moves along quickly enough that it was not until I sailed clean past the end that I realized it’s most glaring fault.

Jarhead is a sea story. I don’t know how accurate it is; I was an 0311 who never served in the FMF. I didn’t go the Desert; I spent the war learning how to be an 4000 at 3D FSSG. It’s chock full of stories that ‘everyone’ knows; here are the Jarheads playing football in the Desert in full MOPP gear. Here is the famous cuckold video a wife sent to her husband in the Desert. All the stories we heard, the lingo of the Marines in the early 90s. Some of the details are off but it was written a decade after the fact – we may chalk this up to memory or wishful thinking.

The problem with Jarhead is that civilians will read a memoir by a Marine turned academic and take it s Gospel. This would be wrong, wrong wrong. It’s a story about a callow young man who went to war, saw some things and came home. That’s all that it is.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Carnival of Space Week 13 is up on the LiftPort blog.

What he said

38 damn years, people. There ought to be a Starbucks up on the moon by now, and a bunch of tourists experiencing the challenge of sipping a vente latte in one sixth G.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Little Monkey found a package left by the mailman between our screen and front door.

What was inside?

Awesome he said with seven-year old enthusiasm. He was impressed that those are picture of ‘for real’ rocket planes that guys are really flying in races. Then he looked at the pictures inside, reading the captions .. literacy is cool. So is this book. I’ll post more after I’ve read the last half of it.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Flying Singer is hosting Carnival of Space #12: Galactic Extra Edition.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Dava Newman and Jeff Hoffman from MIT are working on an old concept – using mechanical counter-pressure to maintain integrity in a pressure suit.

This will do wonders to promote good eating habits in space. Hard to hide a middle-age seat spread in that rig.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Andreessen is a bright guy and I’m happy he’s paying attention to press releases from the Air Force

I’m very happy for the Air Force pilots who will no longer have to risk their lives, and can go home every night to their families.

I’m very concerned that we will be able to declare air war without any concern for consequences other than loss of military hardware.

but he’s never read Fehrenbach’s This Kind of War

“You may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life, But if you desire to defend it, protect it, and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men into the mud.”

Drones don’t allow us the comfort of push-button warfare – nothing will. It ain’t about sleeping at home with the wife and kids, it’s about being a more effective fighting force.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

It bothers me that YouTube hosts trash like this (warning – graphic content).

I identify with the guys on the receiving end, I can easily picture my step-son there and .. damnit I may not like the campaign in Iraq very much but those are our guys over there.

I know what I don’t want. I don’t want the State to reach out and tell YouTube to stop it. Censorship worked in 1943 – but this ain’t 1943 and this isn’t that war – censorship isn’t the optimal path. But the appropriate verbage reads

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Looks like it’s down to an informed private citizenry. And hey look here is a guy with an idea ..

1. Log into YouTube and run a search. Any of the following key words will land you in the right spot: IED, Jihad, Death to Israel, Islamic Republic of Iraq, etc. You won’t have any trouble finding them; they are legion.
2. Open the jihadist video, then click the icon that says “Flag as inappropriate.” Use the drop down menu and click on “hate speech.”
3. This last step is going to take a great deal of self-control. You’re going to see a lot of comments cheering on the terrorists as they blow up American and allied soldiers. Don’t answer these comments directly. We want your comment directed at YouTube management. Something like: “This video aids and abets our enemies in time of war and should be deleted” will be sufficient.

I like it because the approach echoes Flight 93 – the only thing that worked on 9/11 was an informed citizenry.

Waiting around for the government to save you is to be a bystander in your own life.

Cross Posted to The Daily Brief.

Via.

By chance happened across this YouTube post called ‘Afghan: Other War LAV3Strykers Ruin Effort 1, which is a clip from a PBS special.

The poster obviously has a thing against wheeled fighting vehicles but apart from that what struck me was that the guy in charge of the overall NATO effort in Afghanistan, General David Richards, made no effort to speak the local language during an opening of a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT).

He’s speaking at a crowd of local notables. Some of whom can mutter a bit of English, others might or might not understand it – that’s not the point. The point is that the guy in charge is doing a speaking thing, being nuanced and all as if he’s talking to the Rotary and is making no effort at all to speak to the locals, and is instead speaking at them.

I have no doubt he had an interpretor. I have no doubt that when the head cheese makes an effort to speak the local language can have a positive, nay, electrifying effect.

…

I had a very minor and completely non-essential role with JTF Sea Angel. My job was to rush as quickly as possible to the CP from Okinawa and explain to the S1/G1 team how to read the manuals and build a personal database. Once I got THAT out of the way I stood radio watch (as messenger because I wasn’t qualified to  touch the radio), and fixed a few computer problems. It was like being on vacation except I could not go anywhere, the bugs were huge and plentiful, the food ‘meh’ and I wasn’t on vacation. Oh and the water in the shower would kill you if you ingested any.

At any rate the day before flew home* we were all treated to dinner at the Bangladeshi Army Officer’s Club. Speeches were given, by some Bangli flag officers and civilians, in English and Bengali. The American ambassador gave a speech, duly translated into Bengali by a translator. Then LGen Stackpole** stood to give the last speech of the evening.

Now – we liked the guy well enough. He cruised through the CP once a day or so, was the thoughtful boss and not at all a screamer. His Bengali Army MP*** detachment that followed him around seemed impressed by him as well.

Stackpole opened his mouth to speak .. and gave a twenty-minute oration. In Bengali. Which was spoke well enough that the Bengalis gave him a standing ovation at the end. I doubt any of them present have forgotten, I have no doubt if there is any good will generated from JTF Sea Angel it was improved by that single speech.

That is how the head cheese wins hearts and minds in a strange land far from home.

Cross Posted to The Daily Brief.

*** They called themselves MPs but their demeanor reminded me of Colonel Hammer’s ‘White Mice’. Nice guys for all that – they let us fondle their AK-47s and were openly envious over our foot gear. I paid, out of pocket, more for my jungle boots than they made per month.

A note about Carnival of Space – Week 11.

I enjoyed hosting Carnival of Space a great deal – it certainly puts you in touch with a wide variety of people.

At great risk of sounding like a 2nd tier NPR personality during pledge week … please participate! Public interest can’t do anything in space .. but nothing in space can be done without it. A blog carnival is one way to build awareness that ‘space’ can be for everyone not just a few government employees or scientists.

Host, post or link. A blog post isn’t much in the grand scheme of things – but it’s better than nothing.

Carnival of Space (COS) submissions – here.
COS Archive – here.
COS Schedule – here.

Next Week’s COS is hosted at Music of the Spheres. He’s thinking about buying an IPhone – someone stop him before he drinks the Apple Kool-Aid and becomes one of the Mac Faithful.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Carnival of Space – Week 11 – is up at Space for Commerce.

So what do we have on deck for this week? Archeology in the Shetland Islands. Asteroid mining – it’s not going to be for the faint of heart. A liquid telescope on the moon. Why Shubber picks on the drinkers of Kool-Aid.

Plans for world domination proceed apace.