Avoiding a Thirty Years War

Even the NY Slimes is admitting that the war in Iraq might not be the worst thing we might have to deal with over there.

Will the entire Middle East descend into chaos? On Dec. 16, David Brooks, writing in the New York Times, presented a scenario whereby the Middle East became engulfed in a series of regional wars, resulting in the fall of most of the existing states and something close to anarchy in much of the region. His column has caused considerable comment because the destructive unwinding of the existing order he describes seems totally plausible and, perhaps, even probable — hence the analogy to the Thirty Years War.

This answering piece in the Washington Times has some ideas for avoiding that sort of outcome. It’s worth taking a look at – as far as the Chief is concerned, it has reason.

reference:After The Fall – David Brooks

http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20061220-092735-9159r

Even the NY Slimes is admitting that the war in Iraq might not be the worst thing we might have to deal with over there.

Will the entire Middle East descend into chaos? On Dec. 16, David Brooks, writing in the New York Times, presented a scenario whereby the Middle East became engulfed in a series of regional wars, resulting in the fall of most of the existing states and something close to anarchy in much of the region. His column has caused considerable comment because the destructive unwinding of the existing order he describes seems totally plausible and, perhaps, even probable — hence the analogy to the Thirty Years War.

This answering piece in the Washington Times has some ideas for avoiding that sort of outcome. It’s worth taking a look at – as far as the Chief is concerned, it has reason.

reference:After The Fall – David Brooks

What Freedom Of Religion Means To Muslims

By Saudi law, infidels (that is to say, Christians and Jews) are forbidden to practice their religions in public – or even to pray in private with the aid of a bible (third item, “The Daily Blade,” November 17, 2006). The only religious right accorded to infidels in Saudi Arabia is the right to convert to Islam.

Meanwhile, Muslims in the U.S. falsely claim religious discrimination when they are expected to use private areas for prayer and contemplation that airports have set aside for this purpose – just like everyone else – or when they are expected to remove the pieces of cloth obscuring their faces when taking photos for drivers’ licenses or when testifying in court.

AH yes – our ALLIES (!?) the Saudis…with friends like these, why have enemies?

Solar Opposites: Forecasts for Sun’s Activity Disagree Wildly

DISCLAIMER: The Chief has a science degree, and teaches HS science, and has participated in research that was worthy of peer-reviewed publication with citation, so don’t think I’m an anti-science luddite – au contrair…

The U.S.-led panel charged with predicting the intensity of the next cycle of sunspot activity will have to resolve highly divergent predictions issued this year by two leading solar forecasting modelers, according to solar experts at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

While some scientists are predicting a weak cycle, others are predicting a cycle that would be the most intense solar activity yet recorded.

As an active HAM radio operator (RadioActive…get it?), the Chief is very interested in this sort of thing, which directly impinges on short-wave radio propagation.

Aside from that, this sounds a cautionary note (or rather SHOULD sound such a note!) to those envirowackos who want to dismantle industrial civilization in order to “save the planet” based on data modeling that is a LOT more specious and tentative (severe understatement alert!) than the solar data that’s the subject of this piece.

By the way, if we still are trying to figure out how the sun works (which we are), how can those of the AlGore ilk RATIONALLY expect us to believe that THEY have the whole deal figured out on the past, present, and future of global climate – and that we’re on the road to hell, and it’s all our fault!

Hello? This concept is not really that difficult to grasp guys: The energy input from the sun affects our climate so hugely, that anything we can do to change it at this point is virtually non-existent – unless your brain is loosened up by liberal quantities of experimental recreational pharmaceutical products.

Democrats: Let’s Save Some Lives

Democrat and author Orson Scott Card has a point of view that is closely related to the one noted in the previous posting from Blackfive.

Now – if the Donks can get past their own anti-Bush jihad attitude – there may be some hope of something positive happening:

From this moment on, if we come to defeat in Iraq, it will not be President Bush’s fault. It will be, completely and exclusively, the fault of the Democratic Party. And it is the responsibility of the Democratic Party — or at least the saner members of that party — to speak up and do all they can to prevent that defeat.

Here is the message that must be sent to the Iraqi people — and to all the pro-democracy heroes in every nation in the Muslim world, who take their lives in their hands by standing against the Islamo-fascists: “America will not let you down.”

Send that message. Because failing to send it, now, loud and clear, sends the opposite message: America will let you down. America has let you down. America cannot be trusted. So if you want to be on the winning side, you must join Al Qaeda or the ayatollahs.

And if that message is allowed to become the firm belief of people throughout the world, then we will look back nostalgically on the “Iraq War” as a holiday.

Tell it like it is!

ROE – Rules of Endangerment

Any questions about why the Iraq front of the War on Islamofascism isn’t going as well as it should be, check this one out via Blackfive.

Read it and weep – BUT – THERE IS A REAL SOLUTION:

For all the hope of America that we will be safe, no one has ever said, “I can’t wait until our soldiers charge in there and kick ass!” When people say that our soldiers aren’t doing anything over here, that we need to come home, they never bring up that we don’t do anything because of all the pressure THEY THEMSELVES HAVE PUT ON US.

The movement against the war has TWO sides. One, that soldiers should come home because they can’t make a difference and this is a mistake. Two, soldiers over there are unable to do the job, and when they try, they kill the wrong people, torture prisoners, and dishonor themselves.

You have the finest army in the world, America. Best equipped, highly trained, and already established on the ground in Iraq. If the people at home stopped merely wishing things would get better, and tell us to make them better no matter what, it would. We are ready to fight, are you?

Some back to basics is in order here:
For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? – 1 Corinthians 14:8

Birds of a Feather Flock Together at Holocaust Denial-fest

Iran and it’s neo-Nazi President Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad Ahmadinejad are currently engrossed (emphasis on gross!) in their gala conference concerning the non-occurrence of the Holocaust. There are some other rocks turned over that have found some supporters from unexpected (but not unsurprising) sources.

ITEM:
Ex-Klan Chief At Holocaust Conference
Yep, there he is…scum from bottom of the Louisiana bayous: David Duke, representing the KKK viewpoint to the biggest collection of anti-semitism since the Nurnberg rallies of the 1930’s.

Iran hosted Holocaust deniers from around the world on Monday in a conference debating whether the World War II genocide of Jews took place, a meeting that Israel’s prime minister condemned as a “sick phenomenon.” The 67 participants from 30 countries included former U.S. Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

ITEM:
KKK’s David Duke Tells Iran Holocaust Conference That Gas Chambers Not Used to Kill Jews

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s conference questioning the Holocaust came to an end Tuesday, but not before hearing former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke say that gas chambers were not used to kill Jews. “The Zionists have used the Holocaust as a weapon to deny the rights of the Palestinians and cover up the crimes of Israel,” Duke told a gathering of nearly 70 “researchers” in Tehran at Ahmadinejad’s invitation.

Researchers? Yeah…like Dr. Mengele was a medical researcher.

Another thought…with the liked of David Duke with his KKK, neo-Nazi, and other connections of that ilk hooking up with Islamofascism…the documentable connections between McVey and al Qaida in the Oklahoma City bombing, seem to look not at all unlikely.

Of course the latter-day Fuhrer of Iran got his 2 cents worth in:
Iran president says Israel’s days are numbered

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday told delegates at an international conference questioning the Holocaust that Israel’s days were numbered. Ahmadinejad, who has sparked international outcry by referring to the killing of six million Jews in World War Two as a “myth” and calling for Israel to be “wiped off the map”, launched another verbal attack on the Jewish state.

“Thanks to people’s wishes and God’s will the trend for the existence of the Zionist regime is downwards and this is what God has promised and what all nations want,” he said. “Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out,” he added.

Apparently significant parts of the US Establishment is either stupid, blind, or consciously amoral as it refuses to take this seriously. This is perfectly illustrated by the outcome of “statesman” James Baker’s ISG (Iraq Surrender Group) which recommends negotiation with Iran, to supposedly help us bring peace to Iraq.

This is nothing more or less than a revival of Chamberlain’s 1938 version of “Peace in Our Time” (…oh yeah…don’t consider what happens to the Czechs…nothing to see, move along folks…). The rest was history, as the emboldened 3rd Reich Marching and Singing Society figured they could pull it off again with Poland…resulting in WW-II, when even the feckless Chamberlain and his Frog allies across the Channel realized that they couldn’t just sit back and let Germany annex Europe by default. One senses that there is a rapidly approaching threshold when a similar response will be the only way to deal with this geopolitical cancer.

The world response to this exercise in “historical scholarship” has evoked a reaction that the Iranian high muckety-muck mullahs don’t much care for apparently:

ITEM:
Iran defiant as anger mounts over Holocaust forum

Iran has pressed on with a controversial Holocaust conference as international outrage mounted over its hosting of “revisionist” historians who cast doubt on the mass slaughter of Jews in World War II. British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday slammed the conference as “shocking beyond belief”, a sentiment echoed by his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Iran said that the aim of the conference was to find answers to questions about the Holocaust from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described it as a “myth” and cast doubt on the scale of the slaughter. Papers delivered Tuesday by participants from countries ranging from Austria to Indonesia included “A Challenge to the Official Holocaust Story”, and “Holocaust, the Achilles Heel of a Primordial Jewish Trojan”.

Where are the Crusades now that we REALLY need them? DEUS VULT!

Why Newt Is Right

This TCS piece ties global strategic think-tanking to recent criticized remarks of Newt Gingrich who noted to the discomfiture of the moonbat left:

This is a serious long term war, and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country, that will lead us to learn how to close down every website that is dangerous, and it will lead us to a very severe approach to people who advocate the killing of Americans and advocate the use of nuclear of biological weapons.

Newt’s calling a spade a spade here.

And, my prediction to you is that either before we lose a city, or if we are truly stupid, after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people before they get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while destroying us.

This is a serious problem that will lead to a serious debate about the first amendment, but I think that the national security threat of losing an American city to a nuclear weapon, or losing several million Americans to a biological attack is so real that we need to proactively, now, develop the appropriate rules of engagement.

Sort of reminds the Chief of Churchill, and a few political allies like Oliver Locker-Lampson warning about the Nazis in the EARLY 1930’s to no avail – only to have the truth of their cautionary admonitions

Blair: Britain must keep nuclear deterrent

PART of this is good for Britain…assuming it continues:

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday the country needs to maintain a nuclear arsenal to deter threats that may emerge in coming decades.

Blair released plans to replace the fleet of Vanguard submarines, which carry Trident nuclear missiles, the Daily Mail reported. Designing and building the new submarines would cost an estimated 20 billion pounds (almost $40 billion).

Just when it looks like the EngSoc government is rediscovering some testosterone…there’s still an aspect of genuflection to the moonbats in this:

Blair’s white paper, which was approved by the Cabinet, said the number of nuclear missiles would be cut from 200 to 160. He also said that the submarine fleet might be cut from four to three.

Oh well. Half a loaf beats no loaf.

IRS taxation of online game virtual assets inevitable

If you are a hard-core player of virtual worlds like World of Warcraft, Second Life, EverQuest or There, IRS form 1099 may someday soon take on a new meaning for you.

That’s because game publishers may well in the not-too-distant future have to send the forms–which individuals receive when earning nonemployee income from companies or institutions–to virtual world players engaging in transactions for valuable items like Ultima Online castles, EverQuest weapons or Second Life currency, even when those players don’t convert the assets into cash.

Wow! Just imagine the possibilities…why stop with the IRS? HUD could step in to regulate Sim City, Homeland Security could take over the franchises of the Tom Clancy Rainbow Six and similar virtual operations, DoD taking over the Military FPS, RTS, and other geopolitical strategic efforts like Iron Hearts II, etc.

Finally the worst of all…BATF…Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms…would HAVE to move in and impose strict background checks and permitting for such hallowed virtual weapons as rocket launchers, plasma rifles, etc…right up to the dreaded BFG 9000 itself!

Just imagine the possibilities for this whole new realm of bureaucratic jobs (and the administrative empires that would go with them!). Phew! What a thought!

NASA Says It Will Set Up Polar Moon Camp

NASA may be going to the same old moon with a ship that looks a lot like a 1960s Apollo capsule, but the space agency said Monday that it’s going to do something dramatically different this time: Stay there.

Unveiling the agency’s bold plan for a return to the moon, NASA said it will establish an international base camp on one of the moon’s poles, permanently staffing it by 2024, four years after astronauts land there.

This is way cool. The Chief may even still be around to see it, if they don’t fall off their schedule too much.

Daschle says he won’t run in 2008

Former Senate minority leader Tom Daschle said he has decided against a run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008.

Awwwwww. Looks like Tom got clubbed by the cluebat of reality for once. Like he REALLY would/could have had a chance anyway…NOT!

Sailor pleads guilty to espionage

A sailor accused of stealing a Navy laptop and peddling its classified contents to an undisclosed foreign government pleaded guilty this morning to espionage, desertion and other charges. Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann, 22, of Salem, Ore., faces a sentence of life in prison without parole, a dishonorable discharge from the Navy and forfeiture of all pay.

THe above noted penalties are far too easy. We need to start hanging these turkeys and be done with them once and for all. He’s a disgrace to his uniform, and to the Navy.

Rope. Tree. Traitor. Some assembly required.

Iran: Parliament shortens Ahmadinejad’s term

The Iranian parliament voted on Sunday to unite the presidential elections with the upcoming parliamentary ones, this according to the official Iranian news agency. The proposal, which passed with a surprising 80 percent majority, may cut the term of sitting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by 18 months.

The bill must still be ratified by the Iranian constitutional committee, which is headed by former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad’s arch-rival, a fact which many see as indicative that the bill will indeed be authorized.

Interesting report. This could be good, or it could be bad. On the one hand, it may well indicate that Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad Ahmadinejad’s star is waning…but on the other hand might this encourage him to accelerate his effort to force events in the direction believed to encourage the return of the “12th Imam” from his sojourn in a well.

DIVERSITY DOUBLE-TALKIVY’S ‘INCLUSION’ EXCLUDES MILITARY

Marine being harrassed at Columbia University? Hey – there’s a wholesale lot of moonbats there…what else would one expect.

F.E.T.E.

Yikes! Too much stuff, too little time definitely can lead to a temporary blog hiatus!

Russian Economist Suffers Mysterious Illness

After what happened to Alexander Litvinenko with terminal radiation sickness from Polonium-210, here’s yet another case of a Russian critic of KGB Chairman First General Party Secretary Czar President Putin.

The architect of Russia’s market reforms is being treated in a Moscow hospital with a mystery illness. Yegor Gaidar fell unconscious with unexplained symptoms on November 24 – a day after the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died from radiation poisoning.

Instead of Bird Flu, maybe the real danger is this sort of Putinosis.

RIAA and MPAA Merger Announcement

H/T to John Haller.com on this item of interest to anyone who is a media user – and hey, who isn’t?

Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) chairman Dan Glickman and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) president Cary Sherman today announced the historic merger of the two organizations. The newly-created entity is being called the Music And Film Industry Association of America(tm), Inc. (MAFIAA(tm)).

“The RIAA and the MPAA have been pursuing very similar avenues with respect to their fight against piracy of music and movies for many years now,” Glickman said. “It just made sense to combine our efforts for maximum effectiveness.” Sherman agreed saying that “there’s definitely been some overlap to our methods recently. It took a while for the MPAA to go after its customers as strongly as we have, but they eventually came around.”

The newly formed organization’s first priority will be to continue the fight against fair use rights and open technological advances that do not meet with organization approval. “Consumers should not be able to listen to any music or enjoy any movie anywhere without our approval,” said Sherman.

In addition to coordination of anti-piracy efforts, a key benefit of the merger will also be reduced costs. “We no longer have to have both the movie and music industries buying up senators and congressmen to get restrictive copyright laws passed,” Glickman explained. “Now the representatives will be getting one sack of money from one organization. The cost savings to us will be tremendous.”

One final note from the Chief: “Warning: Satire Alert!)

Lincoln Mem. Closed Over Note, Liquid

Authorities briefly closed the Lincoln Memorial on Monday after finding suspicious bottles in a restroom and a note reading “Do you know what anthrax is?” and “Do you know what a bomb is?” Authorities found a bottle appearing to contain a liquid in a basement ladies’ rest room, along with the note. None of the objects was found to be a threat, said Wayne Benson, a batallion chief with the District of Columbia fire department.

No harm no foul…but…a test of our response to something happening, to improve the probability of a future attack? Hmmmmmm.

Bolton: Future of Mideast ‘may well be decided’ in days

John Bolton is possessed of reason:

“The future of the Middle East, certainly the future of Lebanon may well be decided in the next several days,” U.S. envoy to the United Nations John Bolton told BBC radio. “A successful re-emergence of democracy there is being directly challenged by the terrorist Hizbullah and those who support them, Syria, Iran and others.”

In addition to that, there is this atypical signs of cluebat activity among the Foggy Bottom Boys over at the State Department:

The U.S. dilemma is whether or not to provide up to $200 million in military aid to Lebanon over the next year. Officials said the State Department intends to determine the stability of the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora before the aid is sent to Beirut, Middle East Newsline reported.

Looks like someone over there remembered “Once burned, twice shy”.

Ahmadinejad Predicts Collapse of Israel, U.S., U.K.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted the collapse of Israel, the U.S. and Britain, attacking what he called their oppressive behavior. “The Zionist regime is on a steep downhill towards collapse and disgrace,” Ahmandinejad told supporters at a rally of Basiji militia forces near Tehran today.

Yadda yadda yadda.

The Iranian president also called on neighboring countries to drive out “foreign occupiers,” in a reference to U.S.-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The people of the region are well able to establish regional security,” the president said in the speech near the shrine of the Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In other words, except for the presence of those pesky US & NATO troops, Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad Ahmadinejad could be about the business of setting up for the revived Caliphate imposing it’s own brand of “stability”.

He went on to state “The presence of foreigners is the source of discord and conflict.” meaning in fact “The presence of non-moslems anywhere in the world is the source of discord and conflict.”

F.E.T.E.

“Do Those Nitwits…Think This Is Going To Have” The Same Impact As Cronkite?

This morning on radio and MSNBC, responding to NBC’s decision to characterize Iraq as a “civil war,” Don Imus said: “He and Brian Williams and all those other nitwits and Griffin, they all sit around and they make this command decision, and Zucker and all of them, and maybe bring ol’ Wright in there?”

More: “Do these nitwits at NBC News think this is going to have the impact of when Walter Cronkite came back in Vietnam and said we can’t win, and Lyndon Johnson famously said ‘well if we’ve lost Walter Cronkite, we’ve lost the country?'”

This is good. The Chief concurs. No further comment needed!

England wants its independence

There may always be an England…but that doesn’t necessarily apply to the UK according to recent polling conducted and reported by the London Telegraph.

The United Kingdom should be broken up and Scotland and England set free as independent nations, according to a huge number of voters on both sides of the border.

A clear majority of people in both England and Scotland are in favour of full independence for Scotland, an ICM opinion poll for The Sunday Telegraph has found. Independence is backed by 52 per cent of Scots while an astonishing 59 per cent of English voters want Scotland to go it alone.

It may well be a moot point if the Brits (united or not) can’t keep themselves out from under the thumb of the Eurocrats.

Lebanon on the Brink of Civil War

This reported from MEMRI:

Against the backdrop of the worsening crisis in Lebanon, Lebanese Minister of Industry Pierre Gemayel was assassinated yesterday (November 21, 2006). Pierre Gemayel was the son of former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, and he served as the representative of the Phalange party in the Al-Siniora government and was a senior figure in the “March 14 Forces” political alliance.

OK. Typical mid-eastern political action again…the language reminds one of the sort of thing heard in Germany just before the Austrian anschluss, and again before the seizure of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.

In the days preceding the assassination, there had been a sharp escalation in tensions in Lebanon, and especially in statements by Hizbullah spokesmen. Following Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s speech before the popular action committees on November 19, 2006, in which he called on his followers to take to the streets and to topple the government, Hizbullah’s website declared that within a few days a government would be established in Lebanon that would represent the true majority in the country. In addition, a daily close to Hizbullah promised that if the government did not fall within 40 days, it would receive a “decisive blow” that would topple it. For their part, senior figures in the “March 14 Forces” warned that Lebanon was on the verge of a political putsch, and said that it was Syria and Iran that had ordered Hizbullah to create the crisis.

China bought bomber secrets

Hey, the ChiComs are caught here again acting like…ChiComs.

China obtained secret stealth technology used on B-2 bomber engines from a Hawaii-based spy ring in a compromise U.S. officials say will allow Beijing to copy or counter a key weapon in the Pentagon’s new strategy against China.

Details of the classified defense technology related to the B-2’s engine exhaust system and its ability to avoid detection by infrared sensors were sold to Chinese officials by former defense contractor Noshir S. Gowadia, an Indian-born citizen charged with spying in a federal indictment released by prosecutors in Hawaii.

As for the case of the allegedly naturalized Northrop engineer who helped them out…that’s another case. The title of the old Clint Eastwood western movie comes to mind…”Hang ’em High”.

December 7, 2008

Words fail…just read it & pass it on!

H/T to Barking Moonbat E.W.S.

Rice: U.S. Concerned About Rising China

The United States has some concerns about a rising China, including a military expansion that may be excessive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

DUH! It’s past high time!

Beijing has spent heavily in recent years on adding submarines, missiles, fighter planes and other high-tech weapons to its arsenal and extending the reach of the 2.3 million-member People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest fighting force. Its reported military budget rose more than 14 percent this year to $35.3 billion, but outside estimates of China’s true spending are up to three times that level. “There are concerns about China’s military buildup,” Rice told a television interviewer. “It’s sometimes seemed outsized for China’s regional role.”

Now…for policies to recognize this reality…

A number of science & technology related items have snagged the Chief’s attention – I’m not sure why these have all popped up out of the background all right now…but there are some pretty far-out

things going on.

Mechanical Mole Men, Attack!

While The Core remains the all-time worst science movie of all times, part of it’s basic concept is not too far out for the Air Force to be actively looking at:

Throughout the ages, bad guys have loved bunkers, whether they’re in Nazi Germany or Jihadist Iran. With good reason: the suckers are hard to find, and even tougher to blow up. Even the most bleeding-edge, experimental bunker-busters can penetrate, at most, 10 meters down. Which is why the Air Force is considering a new approach: teams of foot-long “subterranean vehicles” with new-fangled ways to dig.

To quote a USAF document:

A subterranean vehicle could engage these types of targets in an effective manner, avoiding both collateral damage and unnecessary risks to our troops. It could be deployed a safe distance from the target and autonomously navigate itself to the target while detecting, identifying, and then avoiding buried obstacles such as pipes, wires, boulders and even other buildings. This vehicle would be able to penetrate the surface either through deployable techniques or on its own.

But “conventional digging techniques” will not get the job done, the Air Force warms. “It’s more likely that a revolutionary approach to digging, involving biologically inspired and/or unconventional physical and chemical approaches, would provide better results.”

It’s a deep subject!

Going in the opposite direction is this idea from NASA. (At least NASA going into space is more logical sounding than the AIR FORCE operating underground.)

NASA Studies Manned Asteroid Mission

NASA is appraising a human mission to a near-Earth asteroid-gauging the scientific merit of the endeavor while testing out spacecraft gear, as well as mastering techniques that could prove useful if a space rock ever took aim for our planet. Space agency teams are looking into use of Constellation hardware for a human Near-Earth Object (NEO) mission-an effort underway at NASA’s Ames Research.

Remember the movie Armageddon? NASA does! After noting the science associated with this project, NASA scientist Chris McKay goes continues…

“Then there’s the whole, what I call the ‘Bruce Willis factor’…the star in the movie Armageddon…and the ability to send significant assets to an asteroid. There’s a lot of public resonance with this notion that NASA ought to be doing something about killer asteroids…to be able to send serious equipment to an asteroid,” McKay observed. “The public wants us to have mastered the problem of dealing with asteroids. So being able to have astronauts go out there and sort of poke one with a stick would be scientifically valuable as well as demonstrate human capabilities,” he said.

Finally, how about communication…backwards in time…for bleeding edge science?

Going for a blast into the real past

If his experiment with splitting photons actually works, says University of Washington physicist John Cramer, the next step will be to test for quantum “retrocausality.” That’s science talk for saying he hopes to find evidence of a photon going backward in time.

“It doesn’t seem like it should work, but on the other hand, I can’t see what would prevent it from working,” Cramer said. “If it does work, you could receive the signal 50 microseconds before you send it.”

And the point is…?

If the UW experiment succeeds at demonstrating faster-than-light communication and reverse causation, the implications are enormous. Besides altering our concept of time, the signaling finding alone would almost certainly revolutionize communication technologies.

Communication FTL (faster-than-light) and BACKWARDS IN TIME? For real? No longer just science fiction? Phew!

Can warp drive be far behind? “…to go where no man has gone before…!”

Did this cat breed with a dog?

This is Mimi, the first cat to give birth to puppies, her owner claims. Brazilian Cassia Aparecida de Souza, 18, says three of the cat’s six offspring, which were born three months after Mimi mated with a neighbour’s dog, have canine traits.

WOW! If they could only talk! What an opportunity it would be for Oprah!

Seriously though – this is EXTREMELY unlikely. A wolf-dog or coy(ote)-dog, or liger is one thing, but the genetic probabilities of a dog-cat thing are vanishingly small.

Some sort of strange adoption is more likely – cat replacing kittens that died.

Admiral says sub risked a shootout

CINCPACFLT Admiral Fallon finally found his way out from behind his desk to try to talk over the shoddy performance of the USS Kitty Hawk’s anti-submarine screen that was highlighted by recently reported ChiCom sub incident.

His remarks, as reported, are an interesting and somewhat contradictory tap-dance around the subject.

For one thing he notes:

…that a Chinese submarine risked setting off a military confrontation by closely shadowing a U.S. aircraft carrier sailing near Japan.

Then he turns around and states

“It illustrates the primary reason why we are trying to push to have better military-to-military relationships” with China,

Ooookay! Lets play a bit of deconstruction here. The Chinese are sneaking in on a US carrier, so we need to try harder to be “nice”. Meanwhile, he sought to downpedal the problem:

Adm. Fallon sought to play down the incident. He said describing the covert underwater tracking of the carrier as “stalking” was “sensational.”

If it wasn’t stalking, then WTF was it? An accidental crossing of paths? This attitude is of the same ilk as those who have a battery of Pentagon lawyers decreeing the rules of engagement that can be used by forces out on the sharp end of things.

It’s essentially a bureaucratic and/or policy-wonk mentality, when the warriors need to be allowed to do thier job.