Oopsie...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words... These are worth a chuckle or two also...

It's been ONE of those weeks (H/T Aepilot Jim)

Doh...

Aw Crap...

Oh S**T....

One note- This does show how tough an AV-8B Harrier is!

Well, 2 notes... The pilot DID ride it out until he was sure it would not go into a hangar or the flight line, so he does get credit for that... The landing? Well, THAT is gonna take a bit of explaining...

Mourning in America...

Remember in November...

Twenty Questions...

How well do YOU know the Constitution? Here are 20 simple questions to ask yourself...


Answers are at the bottom of the post.


1. Has the Constitution always guided our country?

2. What are the three branches of government named in the Constitution?

3. Does the Constitution allow the Supreme Court to make law?

4. Does the Constitution empower the President to make law?

5. Does the Constitution give the Federal government any power in the field of education?

6. Where in the Constitution is there authorization to dispense foreign aid?

7. Did the Constitution give the Federal government power to create a bank?

8. Can the provisions of a treaty supersede the Constitution?

9. Does the Constitution allow a President to take the nation into war?

10. Can you name any of the four crimes mentioned in the Constitution?

11. Should the Bill of Rights be considered part of the original Constitution?

12. According to the Constitution, how can a President and other national officers be removed from office?

13. How many amendments have been added to the Constitution?

14. How is an amendment added to the Constitution?

15. Does the Constitution say anything about illegal immigration?

16. Is the term of a President limited by the Constitution?

17. Which part of the Federal government holds “the power of the purse”?

18. Does the Constitution provide a method for expelling a member of Congress?

19. How many times is the word “democracy” mentioned in the Constitution?

20. Does the Bill of Rights grant the people free speech, freedom of the press, the right to possess a weapon, etc?


It wasn’t as easy as you thought it would be, was it? Here are the answers....

1. No. Originally the nation functioned under the Continental Congress and the Articles of Confederation. Eleven years after the Declaration of Independence the Constitution was written, agreed to and sent to the states for ratification. When ratified by nine states (as the document itself prescribed), the Constitution was declared to be the new governmental system. That occurred on Sept. 13, 1788. The new government was ordered to be convened on March 4, 1789.

2. Legislative, Executive and Judicial.

3. No. The very first sentence in the Constitution states: "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States….” Any Supreme Court decision is the law of the case that binds only the plaintiff and the defendant. The meaning of the word “all” has not been changed.

4. No. Executive Orders issued by the President that bind the entire nation are illicit because, as noted above, “All legislative powers” are possessed by Congress. An Executive Order that binds only the employees of the Federal government (such as granting a holiday) is proper because the President should be considered to be the holder of power much like that possessed by the CEO of a company. But the entire nation is not in the employ of the President.The President does have a role in lawmaking with his possession of a veto. He can veto a measure approved by Congress (which can be overturned by a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress), or simply allow it to become law by doing nothing within 10 days, “Sundays excepted.”

5. No. The Constitution contains no mention of any power “herein granted” in the field of education.

6. No such authorization appears in the Constitution.

7. No. Congress was granted power to “coin money,” meaning it was to have the right to create a mint where precious metal could be stamped into coinage of fixed size, weight and purity. There is no Constitutional authority for the Federal government to have created the Federal Reserve.

8. Absolutely not. Thomas Jefferson responded to those who consider treaty-making power to be “boundless” by stating, “If it is, then we have no Constitution.”

9. It does not. The sole power to declare the nation at war is possessed by Congress. Congress last used this power at the beginning of World War II, when war was declared on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. (Germany declared war on the U.S. the next day.) A congressional vote to authorize the President to enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions should never be considered a substitute for a formal declaration of war.

10. The four crimes mentioned are: Treason, bribery, piracy and counterfeiting.

11. Many do hold that view because if the promise to add a Bill of Rights had not been made during the ratification process, some states would not have ratified the Constitution.

12. The President and other high officers of the Federal government can be impeached by a majority in the House and tried by the Senate. Impeachment does not constitute removal; it should be considered the equivalent of an indictment that must be followed by a trial. Two-thirds of the Senators “present” must approve removal at the subsequent trial to effect removal.

13. There are 27. The first 10 (the Bill of Rights) can be considered part of the original Constitution. Amendment 18 was repealed by Amendment 21. This means that, in 223 years, only 15 other amendments have been added. The process was deliberately made difficult to keep anything dangerous or silly from being added to the Constitution in the heat of passion.

14. Congress can propose an amendment when two-thirds of both Houses of Congress vote to do so. Any proposed amendment must then by ratified by the legislature or a convention in three-quarters of the States. Amendments can also be proposed by a Federal Constitutional convention called by two-thirds of the States. Any amendment arising from a Constitutional convention must also be ratified by the legislature or a convention in three-quarters of the states.

15. Not directly. But Article IV, Section 4 assigns to the Federal government the duty “to protect each of them [the States] from invasion.” It does not specify that the invasion must be military. When 12 million people enter our nation illegally, it is an invasion that should be repelled by the Federal government.

16. Yes. In 1951, Amendment 22 was added to the Constitution to limit any President to two terms. The only President who served longer than two terms was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who held office during a fourth four-year term. He died in April 1945 shortly after beginning his 13th year in office.

17. The House of Representatives. Article I, Section 7 states: “All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives….” If a majority in the House (218 of its 435 members) refuses to originate a bill to raise revenue for something, then no funds can be spent on that activity.

18. Two-thirds of each House has the authority to expel any of its members for cause even though the member has been elected by voters.

19. The word “democracy” does not appear in the Constitution. Our nation is a Constitutional Republic, not a Democracy. The Founders feared Democracy (unrestricted rule by majority) and favored a Republic (rule of law where the law limits the government). James Madison wrote: “…. Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”

20. No. The Declaration of Independence, which provides the philosophical base of our nation, states very clearly that our rights are granted to us by our Creator. The various rights noted in the Bill of Rights were not granted by government. The purpose of the Bill of Rights is to prevent the Federal government from suspending any of those God-given rights, including the right to possess a weapon.

Ethics???

What has happened to the ethics investigations of Maxine Waters and Charlie Rangel??? They have dropped out of the MSM completely...


Oh wait a minute... I found THIS and THIS, in other words NOTHING is going to be done until after the election, and probably not until NEXT YEAR!


How in hell do they get away with it? If these had been Republicans, the trials would be going on in mid-October, the MSM would be having an article a day, etc...


I don't know about anybody else, but I'm about fed up with the whole mess! At this point I'm convinced ALL of the incumbents will do anything to get re-elected, even when they lose the primary... (see Charlie Crist, among others).


As more and more truths come out about the Health Care 'mandate', and people see prices go up anywhere for 9% to 24% (and maybe higher), no more child only plans, and people who can't afford to pay for health care when they are involuntarily retired prior to being able to get social security and Medicare; the veracity of anything coming out of Congress becomes less and less believable.


I, for one, do not intend to vote for ANY incumbent this year, and I WILL BE VOTING!


I don't care who you vote for, but PLEASE go out and vote... IT DOES COUNT!


REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!

A Rifleman's War...

Earl has this up at his blog, but I'm reposting here because it's important people understand what is going on in the Sand Pit...

Afghanistan has become a rifleman’s war.

Because we are fighting a counterinsurgency campaign against a tribal warrior society we have and increasingly continued to limit the use of supporting arms. Machineguns are even proscribed in villages and cities for fear of inflicting innocent civilian casualties.

The result is that we must rely more and more on our riflemen to engage and defeat the enemy. We know that 52% of the fights in Afghanistan begin at 500 meters and go out from there.

Recent publications by Dr. Lester Grau (Foreign Military Studies Office) indicate that a majority of the fights in Helmand Province are between 500 and 900 meters.

The problem is that we don’t teach soldiers to engage with their rifles at those ranges anymore.

Those of you who were at Blogarado, remember the little target I put out there about 550X? THAT is the engagement range! Go to Small Wars Journal and download the entire article, it's worth the read!

It Ain't Your Father's Winchester...

Well, the gentleman took my offer and I went down and picked up another rifle today...

Prairie dogs, wood chucks and other varmints beware :-)

I'm now the proud owner of one VERY slightly used Winchester Model 70 Coyote Light in 22-250. It has literally had 20 rounds total through it, and really isn't even broken in. He even threw in the rest of a case of BH Gold 50gr V-max too :-)

It's got a composite stock, 24 inch fluted medium heavy barrel, and a Loopy 4.5x14 scope on it. Definitely NOT your father's Winchester, this one has a CNC milled pre-64 action and new trigger and I will tell you it feels like it's had a thousand rounds through it! It is smooth as butter, the trigger is as good as the ones on my sniper rifles and this is a brand new gun! Winchester (and FN in South Carolina who builds the guns) got this one right!

But I do have a question...

Why oh why would someone order a varmint gun like this and get a DUPLEX RETICLE???

So the scope is off, shipping it back to Loopy for a varmint reticle install and they are going to throw in a CDS knob for the BH ammo!

Range report to follow when I get it re-assembled... AD, now I won't have to borrow your .22 next time, and I might even let you shoot this one... :-)

Just to set the record straight...

I got into it with one of the Left Wing Loonies at work today... So I did a bit of open literature research...

The day the democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009 it was actually January 3rd 2007 the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, the start of the 110th Congress. The Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is "Bush's Fault", think about this:

January 3rd, 2007 was the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress:

At the time:

The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77

The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%

The Unemployment rate was 4.6%

George Bush's Economic policies set a record of 52 straight months of JOB CREATION!

Remember the day...

January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.

The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?

BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!

THANK YOU DEMOCRATS for taking us from 12,600 DOW, 3.5 GDP and 4.6% Unemployment... to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES! (BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 different time to stop Fannie & Freddie - starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy).

And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? (B. Frank and C. Dodd are thought to have received the most).

OBAMA

And who had fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?

OBAMA and the Democratic Congress

So when some one tries to blame Bush...

REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007.... THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!" Bush may have been in the car but the Democrats were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel they were driving.

When I went back and confronted her with these facts, she said I MADE THEM UP!!!

I mean I've seen some people that were hard over on their 'beliefs'; but when presented with readily available FACTS they say they're false? WTF???

And then she threw in the gratuitous comment that I must be racist, since I didn't back Obama... sigh... At that point I just walked off, since there was NO reasoning with the woman...

And these people are going to get a rude awakening in November and then what are they going to say???

Gotta Love the Marines...

This from a 3rd MAW Rhino pilot back a few years ago, but STILL funny as hell... :-)

There I was at six thousand feet over central Iraq, two hundred eighty knots and we're dropping faster than Paris Hilton's panties. It's a typical September evening in the Persian Gulf; hotter than a rectal thermometer and I'm sweating like a priest at a Cub Scout meeting. But that's neither here nor there. The night is moonless over Baghdad tonight, and blacker than a Steven King novel.

But it's 2006, folks, and I'm sporting the latest in night-combat technology - namely, hand-me-down night vision goggles (NVGs) thrown out by the fighter boys.

Additionally, my 1962 Lockheed C-130E Hercules is equipped with an obsolete, yet, semi-effective missile warning system (MWS). The MWS conveniently makes a nice soothing tone in your headset just before the missile explodes into your airplane. Who says you can't polish a turd?

At any rate, the NVGs are illuminating Baghdad International Airport like the Las Vegas Strip during a Mike Tyson fight. These NVGs are the cat's ass. But I've digressed. The preferred method of approach tonight is the random shallow. This tactical maneuver allows the pilot to ingress the landing zone in an unpredictable manner, thus exploiting the supposedly secured perimeter of the airfield in an attempt to avoid enemy surface-to-air-missiles and small arms fire.

Personally, I wouldn't bet my pink ass on that theory but the approach is fun as hell and that's the real reason we fly it. We get a visual on the runway at three miles out, drop down to one thousand feet above the ground, still maintaining two hundred eighty knots. Now the fun starts.

It's pilot appreciation time as I descend the mighty Herc to six hundred feet and smoothly, yet very deliberately, yank into a sixty degree left bank, turning the aircraft ninety degrees offset from runway heading. As soon as we roll out of the turn, I reverse turn to the right a full two hundred seventy degrees in order to roll out aligned with the runway. Some aeronautical genius coined this maneuver the "Ninety/Two-Seventy." Chopping the power during the turn, I pull back on the yoke just to the point my nether regions start to sag, bleeding off energy in order to configure the pig for landing.

"Flaps Fifty!, landing Gear Down!, Before Landing Checklist!" I look over at the copilot and he's shaking like a cat crapping on a sheet of ice. Looking further back at the navigator, and even through the Nags, I can clearly see the wet spot spreading around his crotch. Finally, I glance at my steely eyed flight engineer. His eyebrows rise in unison as a grin forms on his face. I can tell he's thinking the same thing I am .... "Where do we find such fine young men?"

"Flaps One Hundred!" I bark at the shaking cat. Now it's all aim-point and airspeed. Aviation 101, with the exception there are no lights, I'm on NVGs, it's Baghdad, and now tracers are starting to crisscross the black sky. Naturally, and not at all surprisingly, I grease the Goodyear's on brick-one of runway 33 left, bring the throttles to ground idle and then force the props to full reverse pitch. Tonight, the sound of freedom is my four Hamilton Standard propellers chewing through the thick, putrid, Baghdad air. The huge, one hundred thirty-thousand pound, lumbering whisper pig comes to a lurching stop in less than two thousand feet. Let's see a Viper do that!

We exit the runway to a welcoming committee of government issued Army grunts. It's time to download their beans and bullets and letters from their sweethearts, look for war booty, and of course, urinate on Saddam's home. Walking down the crew entry steps with my lowest-bidder, Beretta 92F, 9 millimeter strapped smartly to my side, look around and thank God, not Allah, I'm an American and I'm on the winning team. Then I thank God I'm not in the Army...

Knowing once again I've cheated death, I ask myself, "What in the hell am I doing in this mess?" Is it Duty, Honor, and Country? You bet your ass. Or could it possibly be for the glory, the swag, and not to mention, chicks dig the Air Medal. There's probably some truth there too. But now is not the time to derive the complexities of the superior, cerebral properties of the human portion of the aviator-man-machine model. It is however, time to get out of this hole.

Hey copilot how's 'bout the 'Before Starting Engines Checklist."

God, I love this job!!!!

My personal favorite was the 20nm/20kft start the approach NOW command... You come out of the air at 6000 fpm gear down, flaps down, all four fans flight idle (and out of sync just slightly) dark ship, and kicking the rudder in opposite sequence with the ailerons to produce random slip angles...

Now I'll be the first one to admit there is a 'bit' of pucker when you bottom out if you're not driving the bird, since you can't help but wonder if they got the flare right for the airspeed and bled off enough descent rate...

How Stupid do They Think We Are???

Are we, as perspective wards of the government, perceived to be so dim witted that a mere change in words used to describe something will cause us to look less skeptical about information coming from our government and accept their lullaby to us so we will go back to sleep?

They want us to to shut up, sit down, quit questioning the authority and motives of your government; sleep, sleep, sleep, send us your money and we will take care of you...

I don't frikkin think so...

White House science adviser John Holdren stated on 16 Sept that the 'preferred term' is now Global Climate Distruption...

From the administration that brought you "man-caused disaster" for terror attacks and "overseas contingency operation" for the war on terror, another terminology change is in the pipeline.

The White House wants the public to start using the term "global climate disruption" in place of "global warming" -- fearing the latter term oversimplifies the problem and makes it sound less dangerous than it really is.

White House science adviser John Holdren urged people to start using the phrase during a speech last week in Oslo, echoing a plea he made three years earlier. Holdren said global warming is a "dangerous misnomer" for a problem far more complicated than a rise in temperature.

Consider this from a 2008 speech, and his failure to admit there is a problem with the data (among other things the now infamous "hockey stick" and glacial melting)...

John Holdren: US public opinion is near a tipping point on climate change despite deniers’ strategy (February 24, 2008)

In a February 18 interview at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Harvard Prof. John Holdren, outgoing AAAS board chairman, said “I really think we’re close to a political tipping point in the United States on the climate change issue…I think deniers of the reality of the climate change problem have been more effective in the United States than they have been in Europe…Climate change deniers, or skeptics as they’re sometimes called, have received attention in this country out of all proportion to their numbers, their qualifications, or the quality of their arguments. And it has slowed down the whole discussion in the United States….It was basically a deliberate strategy—how some of the deniers continued to focus attention on some of the scientific uncertainties, to prevent the discussion from moving forward to what we could actually do about this problem, what the solutions are likely to be….I think the deniers are finally losing the battle and the discussion is now moving to solutions.”

Do we really want to take anything this administration says at face value? Especially now??? go do your own research and form your OWN opinions... Please...

Travel, travel and more travel...

The road trip continues. After a quality breakfast on the lanai (McDonald's on the trunk of the car), it's off to a meeting before a run to the airport.

Honolulu to LA to Sydney to Adelaide in one "day" (using the term loosely) tends to wear out the butt and associated body parts...

I did have an interesting set of conversations with Ron Schmeits (NRA President) and his wife on the trip from LA to Sydney. He is very approachable, and we discussed a wide range of issues surrounding not only shooting in the USA but what is going on world wide. He is very pragmatic and thoughtful in the approach he is taking to fulfilling his duties, and acknowledged the near impossibility of pleasing ALL the segments of the shooting community in the US. I also appreciated the fact that he was willing to listen and actually answer questions.

After multiple hoop jumps (dang travel agent didn't calculate the arrival date correctly), I got my flight changed to the correct day (rather than the next day); hotel reservations corrected, and actually got into a room at a decent hour!

Of course I'm now hungry, so exploring I go... the mini in the room has... Beer $7, beer $7, more beer $6.50, booze $11 each, ONE water $6, ONE Coke $4, and one wine $9 that's it. Hmmm, chips Um... Honey Soy Chicken? Don't think I've ever seen that at Wally World... $6, cashews $4, and a bottle opener $8 (huh???) Guess people are ripping off the bottle opener! Multiple teas, and @#^&* instant coffee...

Why is it you can't find BREWED coffee in Australia without paying a barrista for it? sigh...

/grumble/ Guess I'll wait and catch up with the gang that's already here for the meetings.

Off to dinner finally and where do we go? A pizza place (like I haven't had enough pizza in the last month in Italy), and the 'featured' pizza includes bbq roo... Ah no, not tonight!

So I ask about the Barramundi, and the waitress kinda grimaces (hmmm, I think that's a hint to change my order), skip the pizza, skip the spaghetti, Ah... How bout a salad? Caesar with Chicken? Okay that will be $25!!!

Finally back to the hotel, face plant in the bed, only to come wide awake at 0300 local time. There is absolutely NOTHING open at 0400 in the morning, and the meetings don't start until 0800...

Sigh... And people think travel is fun...

Paraprosdokian Sentences...

Paraprosdokian- A figure of speech that uses an unexpected ending to a series or phrase.

I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way.
So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.

Do not argue with an idiot.
He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

Going to your house of worship doesn't make you a religious person any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

The last thing I want to do is hurt you.
But it's still on my list.

Light travels faster than sound.
This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.

We never really grow up.
We only learn how to act in public.

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening', and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism.
To steal from many is research.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a work station.

How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish.

I thought I wanted a career.
Turns out I just wanted pay checks.

A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it.

Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says "If an emergency, notify:" I list "9-1-1"

I didn't say it was your fault.
I said I was blaming you.

I saw a woman wearing a shirt with "Guess" on it...so I said "Implants?"

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars but check when you say the paint is wet?

Never Forget...

Requiescat in Pacem

We're getting old...

Some assembly required... X 30...

But who is going to do it when we're gone?

I'm on the road again, putting stuff on a boat to go test it and I'm looking around and other than the geeks, everybody else has gray or white hair (if they have any hair left)...

Ages are 68, 67, 66, 66, 63, 61, 59, 58, 58, 56, 53 and 51, or an average of 60+ years; and all of the scientists were over 60 too (one is 79 years young). Two guys were lured back out of retirement to come work on this stuff. We were in at 0630 every morning, worked until about 1900, and did it again and again till we were done. And some of the stuff was 'designed' on the spot to get things done...

There was an immense amount of experience at work, and it was actually funny a couple of times, because most of us have interacted off and on for years; so some of the ideas were 'floated' and shot down by somebody else going, "Now wait a minute, you remember back in 93, you tried that s**t and it didn't work THEN; now I'd do it this way.." And away we'd go again...

But a problem (or at least my perception), is there are NO younger people in training for any of our jobs. I literally went around to the various organizations represented and asked! The consensus was when we all retire (I think ALL of us will be gone within 5-6 years), there will literally be no one with the capability to build/integrate/assemble/deploy/retrieve systems like this; much less anything larger.

It's NOT something that lends itself to automation, and requires experience, ability to think out of the box, manual dexterity, knowledge of strain limits (and how to take a strain on a line), field operations, weather, safety, and most of all the ability to remain calm when literally crap is coming down around your ears...

Who is going to replace us? The geeks? Well, they complained that the tent didn't have air conditioning (one), that they didn't have Internet connectivity (two), and what did we mean Monday was a workday, it's a HOLIDAY (three)... (OBTW, they are both post-docs from a reputable institution which shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) Sigh...

And then one of them has the balls to come on the ship and ask us to step out of the way so he could take a picture of all the work HE did... (so we turned around and mooned him)...

But seriously, what's the next generation going to do? Forfeit the capability to the Asians? Hope they can pay somebody to do the work for them? Just stop doing R&D? I don't know, but I'm not getting a good feeling here...

Weird History take number whatever...

A bit of history... And yes I am actually going some place with this...

1968 - Dr. Tom Lang of the Naval Underseas Center (NUC) in San Diego begins intensive development of his concept for a "high speed ship with semi- submerged hulls", for which he was awarded a U.S. patent in 1971. A key element of the concept is the provision of movable horizontal fins located aft of the vessel’s center of gravity to stabilize vessel trim and pitch motions at higher speeds.

1970 - Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., in Tokyo, begins basic research on the "semi-submerged catamaran", or SSC.

1972 - Construction begins on the 190-ton SWATH workboat SSP KAIMALINO for NUC after 18 months of research by engineers at NUC and nearly 2.5 yea

rs of design and confirmatory model testing⁴. Launching occurs in March, 1973.

1973 - The acronym "SWATH" is coined by U. S. Navy technocrats who promote its use, rather than "semi-submerged" ship or catamaran, to distinguish this concept from conventional catamarans.

SWATH actually stands for Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull... In simple terms, it means take two submarine hulls, tie them together horizontally and vertically, and you have a VERY stable platform in some pretty high sea states (15 ft plus waves for example)...

RV Kiamalino in the mid 70's- note, it's NOT pretty, all the money went to the underwater portions; the rest, well it was kinda like, oh just put a box on top to hold the engines and test people...

Ironically it was originally powered by two helicopter jet engines, with chain drives running down to the props... Bonus points if you can name the type and squadron of the helo on the deck. :-)

Kiamalino today- It sits forlornly in a back dock in Hawaii, but there is apparently a move afoot to actually put her back in service as a test asset. Note the Plimsoll marks on the vertical connectors, she is actually capable of ballasting from eight feet to twenty feet down on the hulls for test purposes...

Kiamalino hull connectivity-The light patch is the aft horizontal plane connecting the two underwater hulls, there is also one forward...

And this is her 'daughter', the RV Kilo Moana, pulling into the pier at Sand Island, HI. Kilo Moana draws 24 feet and is stable in pretty high sea states.

A rather interesting 'problem' with doing research from KM (or any SWATH hull), is that even though the ship is extremely stable, as soon as you put any research package in the water and it is still attached to the ship, there is a SIGNIFICANT disconnect between the package (which is now reacting to the water column it is in) and the stable ship which doesn't react... It's lead to some 'interesting' strain readings on sensors...

Anyhoo, this is your two minute history lesson for the day... Now back to the regular BS...

Jesse Jackson's Ride gets jacked...

Now this is just too funny...

The Reverend was in Detroit pushing GREEN jobs no less... From Channel 7 in Detroit

DETROIT (WXYZ) - A teenager is now being questioned about the rims and tires that were ripped off of one of Mayor Dave Bing's vehicles.

This comes as Detroit police investigate the theft of tires and rims from vehicles chauffeuring high profile people.

The GMC Yukon Denali used to drive Mayor Bing around was found parked at the Shoreline East Condos, resting on bricks. It was in the possession of a Third Deputy Chief in charge of the Mayor's executive protection unit. The SUV is one of the Mayor's "secondary" vehicles. It was found on East Jefferson on Tuesday night.

Two days ago a 2009 Cadillac Escalade being used by Reverend Jesse Jackson was stolen from a parking lot near the Doubletree Hotel. It was recovered on Lawton Street after business people called police. One employee tells Action News "the window was busted out and the rims were missing." He believes the rims would go for a thousand dollars on the street.

Mayor Bing's spokesperson says "It’s our hope the community will continue to support the administration's effort to communicate that any activity compromising the quality of life in Detroit is intolerable."

I just want to know who's doing this, and how much moving around they're doing... makes me wonder if the wheels I bought to replace mine came from Detroit???

Oh yeah, the thousand dollar value, try $900 each NEW, $1200 with tires...

Attention Golfers...

Want to do something fun AND productive this weekend? Go play golf...

Sounds funny doesn't it...

Well, Patriot Golf Day helps provide scholarships for postsecondary educational scholarships for the children and spouses of military men and women disabled or killed while serving our great nation. On Labor Day weekend, golfers across the country are asked to add an extra dollar to their greens fees to fund Folds of Honor scholarships. The Patriot Golf Day campaign is jointly supported by The PGA of America and the United States Golf Association.

The inaugural Patriot Golf Day in 2007 was started by Major Dan Rooney, Founder of the Folds of Honor Foundation, F-16 Pilot, PGA Professional, and USGA member. On Labor Day 2007 Rooney asked golfers to add $1 to their greens fees. His request resulted in donations of more than $1.1 million from more than 3,200 golf facilities. In the last three years, golfers nationwide have been instrumental in raising more than $5.3 million through Patriot Golf Day events.

I WILL be playing tomorrow (early, early... like dew sweepers at sunrise) and I'm donating $10...

Bigotry...

Got a request from Ambulance Driver to help spread the word and some bigotry in South Louisiana...

So do me a favor, and link this post in your own blogs, or link Robert’s post, and let’s Google bomb these backwards-assed yahoos into the 21st century. You did it for me with those mouth-breathers at Cycles and More, and now I’m asking you to do the same with Southern Style Granite. This post or Robert’s needs to be the #1 Google result by the end of the week.

And if you’re of a mind, go to one of the online review sites and spread the word about their business practices.

Thanks for your help.

You can read his entire post HERE, Robert's post is HERE and Gay Cynic's post is HERE...

Obviously the liberal democrats in South Louisiana need a bit of 'education' on what liberal is REALLY supposed to be... sigh... Actually they just need to be put out of business...