Iron Dome: Rocket vs Rocket

Via Legal Insurrection comes this video of Israel's Iron Dome system in operation as it shoots down an incoming Hamas rocket. I remember back in the 80s how all the Democratic politicians (and their politicized scientist allies) swore up and down that missile defense could NEVER EVER possibly work. Never.

Not only were the physics of a rocket hitting another rocket unworkable, but furthermore we would never have computers fast enough to do the necessary targeting calculations they claimed. Of course I hadn't even heard of Moore's Law back then yet but I still knew this was all ideological bullshit. And this isn't just ancient history - in October 2007 then presidential candidate Obama declared:

I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems.

Meanwhile The Impossible has been happening over Israel during the past week:

The success of the Iron Dome missile defense system so far - nine interceptions including the system's first one on Thursday night - has surprised even the air defense troops who have been training to operate the device for several months. Two batteries have been deployed thus far, one north of Be'er Sheva two weeks ago and one near Ashkelon last week.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:26 PM | Comments (733)
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Very delayed edition.
After a long move, sketching, painting, tweaking a project, contacting a porn star for another mixed-media project, drinking,"falling" into a filing cabinet and a host of other things more important than blogging the art thread is here again.
First an introductory music video which both "gets" the bigger, sadder point of this weeks edition AND is the closest thing to actually seeing a Republican leadership meeting:

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Posted by: CAC at 11:59 AM | Comments (96)
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Instead of having to travel around the world I got a reprieve at the last minute, so I'm chillin outside on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and life is awesome.

Came across this old story, it's a good one though.

Nominated for the Medal of Honor 3 times. Was awarded this decoration in 1971. 8 Purple Hearts. Silver Star. 4 Bronze Stars. 2 Distinguished Service Crosses. Perhaps the most decorated veteran in the recent era.

He passed in 2009. RIP soldier.

via James on Facebook.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 11:55 AM | Comments (195)
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I bought Mauldin and Tepper's Endgame: The End of the Debt SuperCycle and How It Changes Everything, mainly because I get Mauldin's newsletter and agree with him more often than not. But maybe it's for that reason that I found the book a little stale -- a re-hash of things I've read (and written myself) many times before. I'd probably recommend this book to a) people who aren't all that informed about finance or fiscal policy and just want to know what's going on, and b) investors who want to know what to do during this fiscal cyclone. If you follow the financial press at all closely (or read my DOOM! posts), you're probably going to find this book pretty much just an echo of things you already know.

For the computer geeks among us, a long-awaiting moment has finally come: the fourth volume of Donald Knuth's Art of Computer Programming series has finally been published! This is a big deal if you're one of the legions of pasty bit-twiddlers out there -- the last book in this series was published before many of us were born. Back when volume 3 (Sorting and Searching) was first published (1973, revised 1998 ), Nixon was still (temporarily) President and no one had ever even heard of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. IBM was in the business of producing machines that costs millions of dollars and required a special building to house. Yet this book is probably more relevant and valuable now than when it was written -- that's pretty amazing when you think about it.

The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4A: Combinatorial Algorithms, Part 1 is actually only the first part of a multi-part book -- and since it took Knuth thirty five years to produce this one, who knows when the next one will be published?

I've got the three previous Knuth books on my shelf (expensive hardcovers, too), and despite their age they remain valuable reference guides and go-to resources for tricky problems. Computers have gotten much faster and cheaper in the decades since these books were written, but the fundamental digital-computer algorithms and data-structures will probably be eternal: Knuth's books will probably still be relevant and useful a hundred years from now, unless we switch to a fundamentally different computing paradigm. (Molecular computers, quantum computers, or massively-parallel analog "helpers" implanted into our own brains.)

What's everyone else reading?

Posted by: Monty at 05:19 AM | Comments (164)
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If you have something other than books on your mind, this is the place to discuss it.

Posted by: Monty at 04:46 AM | Comments (374)
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Yes, it's time for the Zoomies to get a little attention here on this respectable smart military blog. ONT style with a little Caturday flavah.

First up, the Fourteenth Air Force. For obvious reasons (hint: cat). The 14th AF is currently part of Air Force Space Command and is operationaly responsible for east and west coast space launches, satellite command and control, missile warning, space surveillance and command and control of assigned joint space forces. This is their emblem.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:50 PM | Comments (714)
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Hilarious. Funnier than Your Highness.

Obama explains his golfin' jones.

He explains he's not a "golf addict," it's just golf is the only thing the mean Secret Service will let him do with his off-time.

Honestly, he just wants to be a normal guy -- it's not his fault he's so awesome.

"I just miss - I miss being anonymous," he said at the meeting in the White House. "I miss Saturday morning, rolling out of bed, not shaving, getting into my car with my girls, driving to the supermarket, squeezing the fruit, getting my car washed, taking walks. I can't take a walk."

This sounds like a line from a romantic comedy movie about the President, where the President breaks down and explains to the love interest (a hard-charging reporter played by Amy Adams) that, deep down, he just wants to be a man again. Sigh.

After explaining that golf is "the only excuse I have to get outside for hours at a stretch" -- what? he needs an excuse to go outside? the Secret Service won't let him? -- our Romantic-Comedy Dreamboat of a President looks into the camera and really connects with the audience:

His impossible dream: "I just want to go through Central Park (in New York) and watch folks passing by ... spend the day watching people. I miss that."

In related news, Chris Matthews just sighed yearningly.

Thanks to lacyunderalls.

Posted by: Ace at 04:18 PM | Comments (424)
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I'm not sure how to rate a movie with little ambition -- do I rate it according to whether it successfully did what it intended, or do I deduct a half point for it not being particularly difficult? I'll deduct the half point, I guess, because that's what critics do. (Ever seen a very funny movie get a four star rating? Doesn't happen often.)

So I'll give it three stars. Worth seeing, including in theaters, if -- and this is a big if -- if you want to see a solidly R-rated move and if the basic premise of a fantasy/fairy-tale story about a loutish, moronic jackass who spouts anachronistic vulgarities in virtually every single line of dialog appeals to you.

Two bits of background: This script was posted on line and I read the first twenty pages about six months ago. The premise seemed good, but the actual script didn't grab me; it was mostly just the Danny McBride character spouting inappropriate f-bombs and making lecherous references to handjobs.

I did know, though, that reading a comedy script was pretty deceptive -- for one thing, dialog is the least important thing in a script, and pretty much can be taken as "Placeholder for something we make up later, or the actors or director makes up on shooting day."

For another thing, stuff that plays funny on screen often doesn't read funny on paper (and vice versa) -- imagine Steve Martin's various slow-burns and explosions of anger in Planes, Trains & Automobiles. Hysterical -- but on the printed paper it just would have read "Neal gets angrier. Now Neal gets even angrier, and gesticulates wildly." You can appreciate that that could wind up being funny with a good comic performance and some deft comedic editing, but on paper it just seems like a guy's getting annoyed.

(Same thing in reverse -- a lot of lines that read clever on paper won't actually play very funny on the screen, because they won't seem natural or real -- it'll sound like a comedy writer sticking an overly-writerly gag in a character's mouth.)

Anyway, point is, while the script didn't seem funny when I read the beginning of it, I did appreciate that the basic premise of it -- a foul-mouthed anachronistic lout ruining a fairy tale by not behaving properly -- was pretty strong. I don't know what draft I read (they definitely added a new, better, punchier opening), but I could tell the most important thing -- the basics -- were there, even if the jokes weren't yet.
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Posted by: Ace at 03:38 PM | Comments (104)
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I've still got my fingers crossed that HBO's Game of Thrones does the books -- the first of which, at least, was very good -- justice. Based on this first fifteen minutes, I'm hopeful.

The website is here. Fans of the series should be sure to check out the wallpapers from the seven houses.

Game of Thrones premiers April 17.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:04 PM | Comments (116)
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I got up this morning afternoon with a plan to write about the budget deal and how Speaker Boehner made the Democrats eat pavement. Happily, Carl Cameron already wrote that piece:

Over the next decade the cuts are expected to save hundreds of billions of dollars.

The deal mandates a host of studies and audits of Obama administration policies. It also blocks additional funds for the IRS sought by the Obama administration and bans federal funding of abortion in Washington, D.C.

The history of offers on this bill goes something like this. Democrats first offered no cuts, then $4 billion, then $6.5 billion, then $33 billion, then settled at $38.5 billion.

Boehner made numerous adjustments to his offer in recent days too, but started at $32 billion, then with a Tea Party push went to $62 billion, then dropped to $40 billion, then $38.5 billion.

Democrats claimed they met Republicans halfway after the $10 billion in cuts that already passed this year were approved. They settled late Friday night at three and a half times more.

Read the whole thing.

A bit about tactics:

Harry Reid's plan here was idiotic. He does the same thing he always does, which is rant about how extreme the Republicans were being. This is a fine tactic in an election (and we do the same thing to "radical" Democrats), but this wasn't an election. It was a negotiation. Reid was trying to make the Republicans look unreasonable to induce them to change positions without having to make a meaningful concession himself.

When two parties negotiate, it's never as simple as looking at each party's offer, finding the average, and calling it a deal. First, a party's offer isn't necessarily (or even often) that party's genuine goal. You make an offer to get the other party to react. Sometimes they'll creep a bit toward you, making a concession in order to then get a concession out of you. At the end of the day you hope that your concessions are worth more than theirs.

That's not the only way to get a concession, trading offer for offer. You can also induce the other side to change position by showing that they are being unreasonable. That was Reid's primary tactic. Only, there's nothing at all unreasonable about the Republican desire for budget cuts.

So Reid also tried to induce the Republicans to change position by claiming that the real GOP goal was a government shutdown. Fortunately, that also failed to get traction because Boehner and the Republicans were so obviously trying to avoid it. (Note, this Reid tactic would have worked if Boehner had followed the advice of a few conservatives that the best thing to do would be to not negotiate at all.)

So Reid was left with the policy riders, especially the defunding of Planned Parenthood. On that one issue Reid got some traction, but only very late in the negotiations. But note, even there he failed to preserve his position. Originally, Reid said that he would never allow a floor vote on Planned Parenthood funding. Never. It was entirely off limits. But there's a funny thing about saying "never" when you're talking about public consideration of how to spend millions of dollars. Reid's "never" looked pretty damn unreasonable.

And now, because of Boehner's oh-so-reasonable demeanor, there will be a floor vote on corporate welfare for Planned Parenthood. To go along with larger budget cuts than the ones that Reid called "extreme" and "draconian" just a month ago.

Not bad, Speaker.

And on Obama's tactics:

Oh, and the President was also a terrible negotiator for Democrats. He kept applauding the Republican plans. Boehner got billions in budget cuts in each of the last two CRs. Each time, Obama went on television and praised them! Meanwhile, Reid is standing there trying to portray each successive budget cut as "extreme." It happened over and over.

And it'll continue. The White House is already praising the budget deal. You know, the one that cuts four times as much spending as the one that Reid called "draconian."

The best salesman for future budget cuts has been, ironically, the President himself.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:33 AM | Comments (375)
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