Archive for June, 2009
A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi shouts slogans during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. Hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared winner by a landslide in Iran's hotly-disputed presidential vote, triggering riots by opposition supporters and furious complaints of cheating from his defeated rivals. (OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images)
Protestors set fires in a main street in Tehran, Iran in the early hours of Monday, June 15, 2009. Iran's supreme leader ordered Monday an investigation into allegations of election fraud, marking a stunning turnaround by the country\'s most powerful figure and offering hope to opposition forces who have waged street clashes to protest the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (AP Photo)
A riot-police officer strikes a man with a baton near Tehran University on June 14, 2009. Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi said on Sunday he has asked the powerful Guardians Council to cancel the result of the presidential poll, while urging his supporters to continue peaceful protests. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Defying an official ban, hundreds of thousands of Iranian supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi demonstrate in Tehran on Monday, June 15, 2009. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)
From a large gallery at Boston.com.
Letterman
Murdoc thinks the joke was fairly tasteless regardless of who he meant.
He and his writers should have been sure about what they were talking about, though I guess I buy the explanation that he thought it was Bristol Palin at the game, not 14-year-old Willow.
As an aside: Let’s stop and think about this for a moment. The defense seems to be arguing “what’s wrong about making jokes on national television about a sports star impregnating a woman?” That’s the defense? Talk about a weak position. Anyway.
However, at this point I guess I see the issue as pretty much closed. Whatever he really meant or really thinks, he’s done the apology. I’m no fan of Letterman, but I don’t see what else could be expected. Sure, Gov. Palin is probably still pissed. I would be, too. The whole thing is utterly ridiculous.
But I guess I don’t agree with calls for Letterman to be fired over this. It’s a stupid late night show with a host known for making stupid remarks. Shockingly, he said something stupid.
AF ready for F-22 export version
The USAF says it’s ready to create a version of the F-22 that could be exported.
It was the second time in less than a week the question of foreign sales came up at a Senate hearing. Five days earlier, at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, asked the Air Force’s top two leaders — Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz and Secretary Michael Donley — what it would take to sell the stealth fighter abroad. After the hearing, Inouye said Japanese officials had asked him about the possibility of creating an F-22 export version. Australia also has expressed interest in buying the F-22.
The last US F-22 is scheduled to be built in 2011. No doubt the Air Force thinks that keeping the lines running for export planes will keep the door open for additional USAF purchases down the road.
Capitol Hill opens door for Super Hornets
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill might force the Navy to buy more Boeing-made F/A-18 Super Hornets, a move that would override the Defense Department’s formal budget request in an effort to fill the Navy’s so-called “fighter gap.”…
“It makes absolutely no sense to me that the department would pay $26 million to extend the flying life of an older plane by just 1,500 hours, when for $50 million they could buy a brand new, more capable plane that is good for 8,000 hours,” [Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.)] said in a statement.
Report: Chinese sub hits destroyer sonar array
A Chinese submarine struck a sonar array being towed by the destroyer John S. McCain on Friday in Subic Bay, off the coast of the Philippines, CNN reported Friday.
CNN brings up the obvious question:
The official, who declined to be named because the incident had not been made public, would not say whether the U.S. ship knew the submarine was that close to it.
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) operates with ships from the Indian navy and Japan Maritime Self Defense Force April 16, 2007, while under way in Tokyo Wan during a trilateral exercise. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John L. Beeman)
USAF Fighter Purchases and Average Age
Found at Air Force Magazine.
A letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune thinks she’s got a better idea of what to do with F-15 funds:
Instead of throwing good money after bad, the extra billions earmarked for the JSF could fund staff and ambitious exhibits at public museums across the country, educating young students and creating jobs. That kind of creative New Deal resource allocation could pull us out of the deepening recession.
Look, Murdoc’s no apologist for military procurement cost overruns, but is this woman deranged? Opening some museum exhibits by cutting back aerospace manufacturing will create jobs?
She’s on the right track about it being “New Deal”-type resource allocation, though.
I wonder who the letter writer is. Probably just a concerned citizen.
Laura Bonham Deputy director Progressive Democrats of America
Yep. Just another unbiased American without an agenda.
Happy Flag Day:
Apollo 12 astronaut Charles 'Pete' Conrad stands beside the United States flag after is was unfurled on the lunar surface during the first extravehicular activity (EVA-1), on November 19, 1969. Several footprints made by the crew can be seen in the photograph.
Trackers of Orbiting Junk Sound Warning
There are 19,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth. They travel at about 17,000 miles per hour, fast enough for a relatively small piece of junk to destroy a satellite or even the space shuttle.
There are 300,000 pieces of debris the size of a marble or larger, according to Paul Graziani, chief executive of Analytical Graphics, Exton, Pa., a maker of software for the space and defense industries.
There are 3,000 “payloads” in space – sensors, transponders and other equipment used by the communications industry, the military, scientists and others, Graziani said. And 1,400 times each week, a payload comes within three miles of a piece of debris that could damage or kill it.
NASA Announces Winners in Second Annual Lunar Art Contest
WINNER: Crater Core Sample by Zachary Madere Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, Lakewood, CO
Check out the full gallery of finalists here.
Via Noah Shachtman at the Danger Room who writes:
I think I need a barf bag.
Filmed by Jimboking with a flip phone in 2007.
Related: While Murdoc was at a shooting range on NAS Oceana last week with Blackhawk, F-18s were taking turns flying by and performing all sorts of acrobatic maneuvers. Turns out they were pilots trying out for the Blue Angels.
Here’s a couple of photos taken that day by Duane Daiker:
2-ship F-18 Flyby at NAS Oceana - Duane Daiker Photo
F-18 Flyby at NAS Oceana - Duane Daiker Photo
Murdoc Online has been upgraded. Let me know if anything odd is going on.
Here is what I know about already
Rounded corners don’t work
