The artificial blood cells are made from adult skin or blood cells which have been hacked to become pluripotent stem cells.

They're going to begin human trials in 2016, injecting the artificial blood into patients. They'll be making type O blood cells (the universal donor). Even if the tests go well, they don't expect the artificial blood to displace donated blood in transfusions until 2035.

This is pretty neat too, but in a much lower-tech way. One of the most difficult battlefield wounds to treat is a non-compressible wound -- like a gaping torso wound. You can't stop bleeding by the common method putting pressure on it; someone with such a wound will die in a matter of minutes.

The "Xstat" wound closure system relies on tiny super-absorbent capsules that will suck up moisture and expand. So you inject these little capsules into a wound, and they puff up like sponges, sealing a gaping wound shut. Supposedly they become "sticky" as they get wet and will resist being pushed out of the wound.

On the other side of military tech -- the offensive side -- is, stolen from Hot Air, the US Navy's newest destroyer, the USS Zumwalt, a guided missile destroyer.

The flat, inward-sloping geometry is said by engineers to
give it a radar profile equivalent to Jason Statham

No but the geometry is said to give it the radar profile of a "small fishing boat." The Zumwalt is actually 610 feet long and displaces 15,000 tons.

The futuristic ship is actually skippered by Captain James Kirk. Captain James A. Kirk.

The first of three Zumwalt-class destroyers planned by the Navy, the DDG-1000 is a multiplatform ship able to fight on open water or operate close to shore to support land-based attacks. But it is the ship’s unique “stealth” design, size and high-tech equipment that make it different from previous destroyers – as well as more than twice as costly to build.

Every aspect of the Zumwalt’s exterior was designed to make the ship harder to detect on radar despite its size. Antennas, radar dishes and communications equipment are either hidden or enclosed in a 900-ton “superstructure” that sits atop the ship like a massive gray fortress.

The ZumwaltÂ’s hull is designed to slice through waves with less wake, and Navy officials say the ship will have a fraction of the radar profile of the smaller Arleigh Burke-class DDG 51 destroyers also built at BIW.

“You will see her on the horizon long before you detect her on the radar,” said Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.

The Zumwalt is the largest destroyer ever built for the U.S. Navy, with a displacement of 15,000 tons that is nearly twice the size of the Arleigh Burke destroyers. However, the Zumwalt can hit speeds of up to 30 knots, can operate in shallower waters and has more precise weapons than the Arleigh Burkes.

The DoD had originally planned thirty-two ships of this next-gen design, but cost overruns -- and general budget pressure -- has reduced that to a mere three.

It's apparently all-electric. I don't know what that means because it has to get power from somewhere. But, point is, supposedly that will make it a useful platform for testing out electric-powered electromagnetic rail guns, which will be tested in 2016. (Commenters explain that "all-electric" means that moving parts (screws, rudders) are powered by electricity, not, for example, hydraulics. The ship's power comes from burning oil.)

As I'm sure you know, rail guns accelerate metal projectiles to incredible speeds, which I think results in the ability to throw a much smaller projectile and have it hit with the same amount of explosive force. I don't even think you need an explosive head -- once something is moving a couple of thousand mph, it's inherently an explosive device.

More Tech News: We live in a period of miracles and wonders. It turns out that US Airways has unveiled a new plane that can land in a woman's vagina.

So that's pretty good.

I understand that woman was just trying to recreate the album art from the Beastie Boys' License to Ill. A noble effort.

Update: Josh Barro needs you to know that US Airways' tweet of a woman with a toy airplane in her vaj is inaccurate.

Posted by: Ace at 02:37 PM | Comments (229)
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I guess her previous background lying on behalf of Obamacare well-qualifies her for the job.

The agency Burwell heads, the Office of Management and Budget, is responsible for the presidentÂ’s budget. But OMB also has another, lesser-known responsibility: fact-checking presidential speeches. Every proposed presidential utterance is scrubbed for accuracy by OMB.

When speechwriters finish a draft presidential address, it is circulated to the White House senior staff and top cabinet officials in what is known as the “staffing process.” As part of that process, nonpartisan career policy experts at OMB review the speech and are responsible for attesting to the factual accuracy of everything the president says.

So thanks to Burwell’s nomination, Americans may finally get to the bottom of how the biggest presidential lie in recent memory made it though OMB’s fact-checking process — not once but dozens of times.

...

Burwell should explain to Congress and the American people how her office allowed blatant falsehoods to get into presidential speeches, including whether political aides overruled career policy advisers who warned that the presidentÂ’s claims were untrue.

So, she ordered Shutdown Theater to punish American citizens, and approved of Obama's oft-told lie.

These hearings will be epic.

Posted by: Ace at 12:54 PM | Comments (231)
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You probably know that we avoided this topic on the site, pretty much. The reason for this is that it seemed big and important and potentially dangerous, but also very fact-specific -- and I didn't want to make a big deal about a major (possibly dangerous) controversy without knowing what the actual facts were.*

I still don't know the facts. I know that Bundy claims an easement (a legal right to use land that runs with the land), but I have no idea what grounds he has for claiming this, so I have no way to say if his claim is strong or weak or even just made-up.

My sympathies were with the citizens and against the government, but this seemed to be too dangerous a thing to go by pure sympathies and gut-instincts.

Powerline says the standoff has been ended.

ABCNews goes further than that, claiming Bundy has "won" what he called a government "Range War" against cattlemen.

A Nevada cattle rancher appears to have won his week-long battle with the federal government over a controversial cattle roundup that had led to the arrest of several protesters.

Cliven Bundy went head to head with the Bureau of Land Management over the removal of hundreds of his cattle from federal land, where the government said they were grazing illegally.

Bundy claims his herd of roughly 900 cattle have grazed on the land along the riverbed near Bunkerville, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, since 1870 and threatened a "range war" against the BLM on the Bundy Ranch website after one of his sons was arrested while protesting the removal of the cattle.

Harry Reid, who we should always remember has grown unaccountably rich as a public servant, is somehow again involved in a strange case involving Nevada land.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said little as federal agents seized and then released cattle last week from the Bundy ranch, but there is little doubt that the highly charged episode was threatening to become a political headache for the Nevada Democrat.

The Bureau of Land Management is headed by former longtime Reid aide Neil Kornze, who was confirmed by the Senate as BLM director on Tuesday, just as federal authorities descended on the cattle ranch outside Mesquite, Nev.

...

Speculation spiked in recent days over Mr. ReidÂ’s connection to the BLM episode...

Well, Harry Reid is always very connected when it comes to rumors about people not paying their taxes.

* Very often, in making political decisions without really knowing much about the facts about a case, I (as do most people) let my basic ideological and philosophical leanings decide the matter.

In this situation, with guns assembled on both sides, it seemed wrong (to me) to do that.

Posted by: Ace at 12:06 PM | Comments (321)
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Fire Controlman 1st Class Elizabeth Sharpe monitors a console in the combat information center aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Edward Guttierrez III/RELEASED)

This past weekend things got interesting in the Black Sea as two Russian fighter/bombers gave the USS Donald Cook an up close and personal airshow.

While these sorts of confrontations may have been somewhat common during the Cold War, 12 flybys standout these days. This is especially true when we're talking about a ship operating in the area of Russian military aggression against Ukraine.

Given that one misjudgment by either side could have far reaching consequences, it's fair to presume that the Russians had the full attention of the Donald Cook's crew.

To get an idea of what it's like to be in that situation I asked Commander Bryan McGrath (USN, Ret) to provide a guest post on how the Navy trains captains for situations like this. During his 20 plus year career Bryan served as the commanding officer of USS BULKELEY (DDG 84), a sister ship to the Cook.

Press reports indicate that on Saturday, a Russian SU-24 FENCER made “…multiple, close-range passes near an American warship in the Black Sea for more than 90 minutes…” flying within 1000 yards of the USS DONALD COOK (DDG 75) at an altitude of approximately 500 feet. DONALD COOK is an ARLEIGH BURKE Class guided missile destroyer equipped with the Aegis Combat System, the SPY-1D phased-array radar and dozens of surface to air missiles, and the SU-24 is a Soviet-era all-weather attack jet still in service with the Russian Air Force. The incident was no doubt tense, but a few thoughts from someone who has dealt with a few close aboard passes may provide some context.

1. While this type of thing is not “common”, it is meticulously trained for. US ships are equipped with sophisticated embedded training devices that allow for very realistic training. The crew of the DONALD COOK has likely gone through scores if not hundreds of scenarios in which conditions very much like what were seen on Saturday are imposed upon the crew and the crew must then react. Although the exact wording and the rules of engagement that govern their use are classified, press reports indicate that the COOK made numerous attempts to contact the Russian aircraft, but were not answered. Those “queries” would have been practiced throughout the training cycle and even from watch to watch while on deployment. The queries would have been made over at least two different frequencies, commonly known as the “military air distress” frequency and the “international air distress” frequency. It is likely that the pilot of the FENCER heard them, but was pre-briefed not to answer.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:20 AM | Comments (247)
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For years, China was propping up what little was left of the global economy. They might not be able to perform that function anymore.

The real estate market in Hangzhou looks like it has just passed an inflection point. It is not so much that fundamentals have deteriorated—they have been weak for some time—as that people’s mentality has changed.

...

Now, the problem of no buyers is spreading across the country. Sara Hsu notes China’s residential markets are becoming inelastic. “Once consumers stop buying,” she writes, “deep discounts are ineffective in drawing them back.” People aren’t buying because they believe prices will decline further.

...

China is at the point where problems are feeding on themselves. Pessimism about property, which accounts for about 15% of China’s gross domestic product, is beginning to affect the broader economy. Declining property values look scary, despite cheery statements from government officials who assure us the property bubble is “not big” or analysts who say that the problems are not “systemic.” But the Chinese don’t look like they are buying either of those views. “If this continues, it will have immense impact on the whole Chinese economy,” says an unidentified Hangzhou real estate salesman on Economic 30 Minutes. “Without question, everyone thinks there is a bubble.”

...

There is little any leader can do. Collapses occur when people lose confidence. That is now happening in China.

(Game of Thrones thread below, for those who care.)

Posted by: Ace at 11:04 AM | Comments (263)
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This week's Easter Weekend Edition of the Gardening Thread brought to you by The Legend of the Dogwood:

At the time of the crucifixion, the dogwood had reached the size of the mighty oak tree. So strong and firm was the wood that it was chosen as the timber for JesusÂ’ cross.

To be used for such a cruel purpose greatly distressed the dogwood. While nailed upon it, Jesus sensed this, and in his compassion said. “Because of your pity for my suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used for a cross. Henceforth, it shall be slender, bent, and twisted, and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross–two long and two short petals.

“In the center of the outer edge of each petal will be the print of nails. In the center of the flower, stained with blood, will be a crown of thorns so that all who see it will remember.”

Take it away, WeirdDave!

more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:27 AM | Comments (136)
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Commenters keep mentioning this, so okay, here's a thread.

A warning to anyone who hasn't watched the show yet: The reason people are mentioning this is because of a Major Spoiler Event.

So keep away, Spoiler-Avoiders.

I'll put up another post just above this one so that this isn't the only new thread.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:57 AM | Comments (187)
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Last week, first Holder and then Obama addressed Al Sharpton's National Action Network, both making emotionally-charged claims of persecution to the largely-black audience.

Bret Hume thinks this is nonsense. So it seems to me as well.

“To those two men, race has been both a shield and a sword that they have used effectively to defend themselves and attack others,” Hume continued. “It is depressing at this stage in our national life, after all we’ve been through on this issue and given the overwhelming consensus of civil rights, that this stuff is still going on.”

On the same panel (I think) George Will calls the left's constant invocation of race to explain away criticism of them as a "kind of Tourette's syndrome."

He notes that Obama's foreign policy is in "shambles," and the economy is miserable -- does one need to venture far afield to come up with clever subconscious explanations for why Obama is unpopular?

No, of course not; the reasons for his unpopularity are glaringly obvious. Thus making it all the more necessary to claim that "racism" accounts for opposition against him.

Posted by: Ace at 10:02 AM | Comments (261)
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This isn't much of a surprise to anyone paying attention, except to the extent a member of the media elite is willing to admit what the non-media-elite have known for a decade.

Gall said she first had the realization that Pakistan was fueling the insurgency in Afghanistan “very soon” after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“I went to Quetta and found Taliban resting up there and regrouping,” she said. “They had assistance, some of them talked about being forced and threatened and told to go in and fight the Americans … and when you're there, on the ground, seeing every bombing, the suicide bombing had started, the insurgency that grew, and you investigate where it's coming from, it kept leading back to Pakistan.”

Gall said that Pakistan’s leaders, and especially former President Pervez Musharraf, were “very clever” and tricked the United States into believing that Pakistan was an ally.

“I think the politicians, not all of them, but the diplomats … it took ages for them to understand that actually the persuasion wasn't working; the engagement wasn't bringing them on board; they were actually double dealing,” she said. “And now diplomats will tell you very plainly, ‘Yes, Musharraf was double dealing.’”

She makes the not-at-all-controversial claim that the ISI knew where bin Ladin was and was in fact hiding him, and are currently performing the same service for Al Zawahiri.

Posted by: Ace at 09:15 AM | Comments (205)
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Bring your witty and insightful commentary here until the boss rises from his slumber.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:35 AM | Comments (225)
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