Easy Living Swimming

We honestly can't make this stuff up. Oh, sure, we try, but we really can't beat real life. We're just not strange enough. Despite what the kids say. Scientists are going to study the effects of Uriah Heep on fish. We swear.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A Finnish researcher is to study fish in an aquarium while a rock group performs nearby, to see if the sound causes any ill-effects or distress.

Bands including ageing rockers Uriah Heep will perform on Friday night to about 3,000 fans in a tent just a couple of dozen metres away from the aquarium.

"I will be looking for any abnormal behaviour or activity," said researcher Mikko Erkinaro.

The 500,000-litre tank is home to salmon, trout, pike and perch and other species common in Finland's brackish coastal waters. (Ed. Note: This is not an aquarium, this is the "pick-your-dinner" tank at a restaurant.)

"It could be quite nasty to arrange such an aquarium and a performance venue (so close)," Erkinaro said, "especially when the (band) is a bit old-fashioned."

Well. That comment was a bit nasty, wasn't it? Why not study the effects of five hours of non-stop Stairway to Heaven. Oh wait, that would mean you'd have to replace all the fish. Because they'd all hang themselves. Anyway, YouTube comes through with a clip of Uriah Heep. Doing it the old-fashioned way.

They’re After The Bikes

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard have suddenly realized there is a connection. We told you about the dog who disrupted the Tour de France. We, correctly, attributed the sudden treason of man's best friend to the tactics of the enforcers of the Animal Uprising™, the deer. After all, having a large, antlered, strongarm tactician do a mambo on your head would make even a loyal dog turn his coat, so to speak. But today's news says there is more to it than just the dogs being turned. The deer are also stepping up pressure on bicyclists.

Bicyclist Jeffrey Norberry fell victim to a hit-and-run deer.

The Windermere man was biking early Thursday along a secluded area on Walt Disney World property when a deer ran across the roadway and collided with him head-on, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Norberry, 56, flipped over the handle bars of his bike and the deer before crashing to the ground on Floridian Way shortly before 3 a.m.

The man, who had been wearing a helmet, was taken to Florida Hospital Celebration Health with minor injuries. The deer was nowhere to be found.

We believe that the Animal Uprising™ is suddenly very, very interested in bicycles. We have no idea why, but the evidence is clear.

How to Admit You’re Wrong

The Politico's Crypt blog is reporting that Representative Christopher Shays (R-Conn), had an altercation with a Capitol police officer.

On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) got into a loud, angry dispute with a U.S. Capitol Police officer at the security checkpoint inside the entrance of the West Side of the Capitol. On Friday, Shays, a veteran lawmaker, offered a public apology for the incident and said that he wants to meet with the officer personally to reiterate how sorry he is.

Shays reportedly grabbed the officer during the dispute over whether the officer should allow a group of tourists to enter the building, said several sources. Tourists are not allowed to use the West Front entrance, but Shays was trying to bring the group through that entrance anyway. The officer refused to allow them in, and Shays then "yelled and screamed" at the officer, including using profanity, the sources said.

 

Update - here's a Capitol Police report on the incident:

"On Thursday, July 19, 2007, a United States Capitol Police officer had an interaction with Congressman Christopher Shays on the West Front of the Capitol wherein the Congressman acted in a manner that was inappropriate.

"The officer took offense to the manner in which the Congressman spoke to him and said that the Congressman also reached out and touched his nametag.

Shays issued the following statement:

"Yesterday while trying to locate a family of constituents caught on the West Front of the Capitol during a rain storm, I interacted with a Capitol Police officer in a way I know was not appropriate.

"Although my focus was in trying to locate my constituents and get them to a dry location, I know I clearly could have handled the situation with the officer in a more professional and respectful way, and I regret I did not do so.

"During my 19 years in Congress I have grown to respect and appreciate the difficult mission performed by the men and women of the United States Capitol Police every day. They ensure members of Congress can conduct the people’s business in the safest environment possible while also attending to the needs of the millions of people who visit our nation’s Capitol every year. They deserve all of our respect and admiration and I apologize that even for a few moments my behavior did not reflect my appreciation of that fact.

"When I return to Washington on Monday, I hope to have the opportunity to meet with the officer and apologize to him in person. I take full responsibility for this incident and want to ensure it does not reflect negatively on the officer in any way."

The Crypt invokes the Cynthia McKinney incident. But hold on a second, let's compare reactions by the offending Congressman:

"Let me be clear. This whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me, a female black congresswoman," McKinney said. "I deeply regret that this incident occurred."

"Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, like thousands of average Americans across this country, is, too, a victim of the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials because of how she looks and the color of her skin," [said James W. Myart Jr., one of McKinney’s lawyers].

More here, here, here, here and here. McKinney did not "touch the officer's nameplate", she hit the officer with a closed fist. And she never, to my knowledge, acknowledged that she was wrong - only a "regret" for the escalation. That is not an apology and is not an admission of wrongdoing. Advantage: Shays. He was wrong, he admitted it and he has taken full responsibility. Not tried to blame something like racism for the incident. I wouldn't know Shays if I tripped over him, but he handled this with infinitely more class than McKinney ever did.

One Laptopdance Per Child

The One Laptop Per Child Foundation sent a pilot shipment to a school in Nigeria recently. The students promptly began learning. Assiduously.

They cruised porn sites.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian schoolchildren who received laptops from a U.S. aid organization have used them to explore pornographic sites on the Internet, the official News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported Thursday.

NAN said its reporter had seen pornographic images stored on several of the children's laptops.

"Efforts to promote learning with laptops in a primary school in Abuja have gone awry as the pupils freely browse adult sites with explicit sexual materials," NAN said.

An OLPC spokesperson told the media that the laptops would now be fitted with filters. Frankly, I'm surprised they weren't. (Note, I'm not making fun of the OLPC project here, merely pointing out that there are things one should expect from curious children - which is why my kids have strict rules on computer usage. As well as frequent inspections.)

When Bears Come Calling

And no, this isn't an Animal Uprising™ story. Russian Tupolev 95s and Tupolev 160s (NATO designators Bear and Blackjack, respectively) have been intruding into British airspace. Britain has had to scramble Tornado fighters to meet three separate incursions in the past few days.

But the arrival in yesterday's early hours of the Tupolev aircraft - also known as Bears - suggests president Vladimir Putin is not backing down.

Two Tornados were scrambled from RAF Leeming, near Darlington, after two Tu95 bombers were picked up on radar. They were intercepted inside British airspace shortly after 2am but, with the RAF pilots on their tail, the intruders turned and flew north.

Another alert a few hours later led to the scrambling of two more Tornados. RAF sources said the planes were recalled when it turned out that the Tu160 Blackjack bomber was only on the "fringes of UK airspace". It also made off to the north from a position off Scotland.

Tuesday's incident saw two Tu95s approached by Norwegian F16s and RAF Tornados off the coast of Norway.

Russian air force commander Colonel Alexander Zein said the encounter had no connection with the political row between London and Moscow.

"Our planes were flying planned flights over neutral waters," he insisted. Yesterday a Russian air force spokesman said all the sorties were training flights.

The Tu95 can carry missiles as well as undertake surveillance missions.

With a range of more than 8,000 miles at a top speed of 575mph, it was the Russian answer to the American B-52. The Tu95 took its maiden flight in the early 1950s and was designed to drop nuclear weapons.

It has been redesigned to carry cruise missiles and can even be converted for use as a civilian airliner.

The Tu160, which can reach speeds of up to 1,380mph, was brought into service in the 1980s.

Nicknamed the White Swan by its Russian pilots, it can carry up to 88,000 lbs of ordnance including either cruise or short-range nuclear missiles.

Russian authorities would not disclose whether the planes in this week's incidents were carrying bombs or simply on surveillance duties.

Putin has resurrected the Cold War, big time.

UPDATE: Ooops. Meant to include these links:  Bears, Blackjacks.

The Little Robots That Could(n’t)

Spirit and Opportunity, the two little rovers that NASA sent to Mars were designed to last three months. Three years later, they are still operating. But it does not look like they will survive much longer unless conditions on Mars change soon. Massive dust storms have cut the sunlight reaching the planet surface by 95%. The little robots depend on solar power - and 5% is not enough to keep the vital heaters running for much longer.

A raging dust storm on Mars has cut power to NASA's twin rovers to dangerously low levels, threatening an end to the mission.

The rovers were slated to operate for only 3 months but have been on Mars more than 3 years, so mission officials have had ample time to ponder the their silencing.

The storm presents perhaps the rover team's biggest challenge, NASA said in a statement today. Scientists said the storm, which has been brewing for nearly a month, is blocking around 85 to 90 percent of all sunlight to the surface.

The rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, rely on sunlight to charge their solar panels, and one or both rovers could be damaged permanently or even disabled by the limited solar power, officials said.

SPACE.com reported the storm's fresh severity earlier today.

Scientists fear the storms might continue for several days or weeks. If the sunlight is further slashed for an extended period, the rovers will not be able to generate enough power to keep warm and operate at all, even in a near-dormant state, the statement said.

The rovers use electric heaters to keep vital core electronics from becoming too cold.

"We're rooting for our rovers to survive these storms, but they were never designed for conditions this intense," said Alan Stern, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

"To give you a sense of the 'thickness' of the dust, the brightness of the sun as viewed from the surface is now down to less than 5 percent of what it would be with a perfectly transparent atmosphere," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, who is the lead scientist of the Mars Exploration Rover Project. "Of course, Mars never has a perfectly transparent atmosphere, but the sun is still very faint."

This would be a very sad ending to a great story. (I kind of suspect NASA is letting word out like this because they do not anticipate good news soon. Kind of a "get ready for the bad news" press release.)

Not Good

Ok, this report is not good news. A homeowner in New Jersey walked out her front door and found a surprise on her front lawn. A rocket launcher.

(CBS) JERSEY CITY A Jersey City woman made a shocking discovery on her lawn this morning when she noticed a military rocket launcher lying in the grass.

Niranjana Besai was leaving her house, located at 88 Nelson Street, to go to work just after 8 this morning when she spotted the launcher on her front lawn. "I read it and it [said] 'missile,'" Besai told CBS 2 HD. "There was little 'missile' [writing] on it."

She immediately called police.

Sources tell CBS 2 HD that the device is an AT-4 missile launcher that is used to fire against tanks and buildings. The device was first approved by the U.S. Army in 1985 and questions are being raised as to whether the device was stolen from a branch of the military.

Its very powerful warheads can penetrate through well over a foot of armor.

What's more troubling, sources add, is that Besai's house is located along flight path for Newark Liberty International Airport.

There is a bit of hyperventilation here. If the device is an actual AT-4 of the type used by the US armed forces, it is a single shot weapon that fires a "dumb" unguided projectile. It is not a "missile launcher", it is classified as a recoilless rifle (or grenade launcher). Technically, it would be possible to hit a jet in the air with one - but it would be a hell of a shot. That does not mean this is not a problem. When was the last time you found a recoilless rifle lying in your front yard?

There are other types of devices which are real missile launchers, however, that this could also be, so until there is a definite identification, everything is speculative. One witness reports seeing a picture of a kneeling soldier on the device, however, which matches with the markings for the AT-4 (officially the M136 AT4). But just happening to find one in front of a house that is under the flight path to a major airport isn't a good thing at all, regardless.

UPDATE: The AP is reporting that the device has been confirmed as an AT-4 which had already been fired. The devices are not reloadbale or reusable. They believe the device is about 20 years old. The disturbing part is that experts agree that the fired device, while not lethal, can be used as a training prop to show someone how to hold and aim it.

Army personnel identified the yard-long tube as an AT-4 anti-tank missile launcher, said fort spokesman Timothy Rider. Such launchers can only be used once to fire a missile, and soldiers determined that this launcher had been fired, he said.

"It can never be reloaded, but it still has the mechanism that can be useful for training," Rider said, explaining that soldiers can learn to carry it on their shoulder and take aim.

Saturn V Restored

One of only three surviving Saturn V rockets - the booster for the Apollo moon missions - has been refurbished, housed in a special building and reopened to the public 38 years to the day after man first set foot on the moon. Nice timing.

The Saturn V on display outside Johnson Space Center for two decades would be 30 stories high if stood upright. But the rocket, one of the most powerful ever built, was no match for the city's stifling humidity. A two-year, $5 million restoration was culminating in reopening ceremonies Friday — 38 years to the day after men first walked on the moon.

The rocket, which is already open to visitors, is now housed inside a climate-controlled, barn-like building near the entrance to the space center. Posters alongside the rocket's different sections explain their function to visitors.

Former astronaut Alan Bean, who walked on the moon in 1969 on the Apollo 12 mission, said preserving the rocket was important because it is a symbol of America's success in space exploration and the country's innovative spirit.

"It's inspirational to look at it and think that human beings just like us conceived it, designed it and built it," he said. "It shows human beings at their best."

Saturn V rockets were launched 13 times from 1967 to 1973. Eight missions traveled to the moon, and six landed there. A Saturn V also put Skylab, America's first space station, into orbit in 1973.

I have been to see the one housed at the Kennedy Space Center. You simply cannot comprehend the size of these things until you have walked under one. Thirty stories tall, the most powerful rocket ever built. There were 32 Saturns of various types launched in total - not one failed.

One Small Step

Happy 38th anniversary. On this date in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the moon. Here is a short video of the flight (which, weirdly, I think, uses the soundtrack for the movie Apollo 13, but it works).

There is a video clip of the actual first step here.

Denial

Long time readers know that I have very little respect for John Kerry, for many different reasons. Ok, lets be frank, I have no respect for the man whatsoever. But this lie is so ridiculous that he has managed to actually lower my opinion of him. Kerry asserted on a C-Span call-in show that no genocide followed the American withdrawal from Vietnam. Go watch it for yourself.

Then go have a look at Toul Sleng. Or read a bit about that place here. Or read about the Vietnamese "Boat People" here. At least 165,000 people died in the Vietnamese "reeducation camps". At least 2 million died in Cambodia.

John Kerry, a man with no honor and no shame.

Robot Birds

Well, this is just creepy. Right after I got done with the last post about the increasing use of drones over the United States, I come across this article. It seems some Dutch engineering students have come up with a design for robotic birds that they plan to build to enter into a competition. Eventually, such robo-birds could be use for surveillance.

The team, from Delft and the Department of Experimental Zoology of Wageningen University in The Netherlands, based the design on recent findings on the common swift’s flight features, as detailed in an April issue of the journal Nature.

During its lifetime, a common swift can fly up to five times the distance to the moon and back, or more than 2 million miles (more than 3 million kilometers). The Nature study found the common swift is able to endure the distance by constantly morphing its wings in response to the prevailing flight conditions.

By folding its feathers over one another and sweeping them back and forth, the bird changes its wing shape and the surface area exposed to the elements. The feathery adjustments boost flight efficiency and maneuverability.

If it works as designed (it appears that no real prototype has been built yet) the first evolution of these things would be capable of about an hour's worth of time in the air. But the truly radical shape-changing wings mean the darn things will be highly maneuverable. In a few years time, you might have to start wondering if that bird watching you is a bird at all.

Drones Multiplying

The Washington Post reports that the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones is on the rise. But just not where you might think. Oh sure, they have become very common in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the Post is reporting another hotspot: within the United States.

From the comfort of a control center at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California, pilot Mark Pestana will gun the throttle of his unmanned aircraft, pull back on the stick and gently guide his plane into the sky next month.

But he will not be using the high-tech modified Predator B drone to seek out and kill insurgents in Iraq or Taliban in Afghanistan.

Instead, his mission will be to comb the western United States for forest fires and to relay infrared images and photographs of the blazes to firefighters on the ground.

Routinely seen and heard in the skies above Iraq and Afghanistan, drones are being flown in growing numbers in the United States on a variety of missions, including probing hurricanes and spotting illegal immigrants crossing the border.

The increasing use of unmanned vehicles, which range in size from those that can fit in your hand to twin-engine jets, has met resistance from federal regulators struggling to safely incorporate the devices into the nation's airspace. The drones have also raised fundamental questions about the nature of flight and what it means to be a pilot.

The Federal Aviation Administration is allowing unmanned vehicles to fly on a case-by-case basis only after regulators have been convinced that the aircraft will be operated safely and be confined to specific segments of airspace.

This year, regulators expect to grant more than 130 waivers to government agencies to use unmanned flying machines, up from 64 two years ago. The FAA has granted private companies nine certificates to operate drones in the United States this year — a total of 13 have been granted since 2005 — so they can test their products, regulators said.

Note that they are calling the MQ-9 by its previous moniker of Predator-B, not by the new designation of "Reaper". I can see where there are a lot of situations that the UAVs would be very useful for. I can also see the problem that the FAA has on its hands, however. The skies above the United States are very crowded. People really noticed that after all flights were grounded following 9/11, didn't they? But there have been some real problems with drones:

During the rescue efforts on Mount Hood, the small drones crashed 11 times because of high winds, according to the FAA. In April of last year, a Predator B that was patrolling the border for customs officials crashed near homes in Arizona. Investigators said the plane's pilot accidentally shut off its fuel flow.

FAA officials are saying that they have no intention of lifting the case-by-case review they are doing right now unless and until the technology improves to the point where drone operators can detect and avoid other aircraft, just as real pilots have to. It is important to remember that drones are really only in their infancy, too. They have come a long way in a very short time, but they still have a long way to go. But this article should give the tinfoil hat brigade the willies. They're watching us.

Strategy

Kimberley Strassel, in her weekly column at the Opinion Journal dissects the political situation that Republicans find themselves in right now. It is a pretty good look at the realities involved. Being hounded by an unbelievably well-funded effort to make a "toxic" political environment, a lot of Senators are getting nervous. But Strassel points out that this is not the time to do that.

When Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar broke with President Bush on Iraq last month, he was hailed by antiwar groups as brave. When the Republican this week bucked Democrats and refused to vote for an immediate troop withdrawal, he was hailed by conservatives as wise. Mr. Lugar might well be both brave and wise, but before he's any of those things he's a politician.

And it's politics, not principle, that explains the seeming disconnect this week between the growing number of Republican senators who loudly distance themselves from the war, yet refuse to join Democrats in their antiwar votes. As Mr. Lugar, New Mexico's Pete Domenici and Ohio's George Voinovich, all successively bailed on the surge, the headlines built it up as a great Republican Rift, a "turning point" in the war, which would finally deliver Harry Reid the votes he needed for withdrawal.

Instead, Mr. Reid got a fizzling 52 ayes for withdrawal this week, and not a one from Republicans who'd so recently and forcefully criticized the war. The few senators who crossed to Mr. Reid's side were primarily those who'd long been griping about the war, say Nebraska's Chuck Hagel. The rest of the GOP war apostates were MIA.

Confusing as this might seem, it's also precisely what many of those Republican breakaways intended from the start. Mr. Domenici, New Hampshire's John Sununu, Minnesota's Norm Coleman–all are panicked about next year's election and desperately want Iraq off the table. But political retreat is no easy thing.

One the one hand, they are under intense pressure to start placating independents and other voters unhappy with the course of the war. Anti-war groups are making it as hot as possible, with a coalition of liberal groups launching a summer-long blitz against key Republican senators who are vulnerable in next year's election, demanding they support withdrawal. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has joined in, running ads, like one in Mr. Coleman's Minnesota, that show footage of bloody Iraq combat and that suggest if he doesn't abandon the current strategy he will be responsible for further combat deaths.

Read the whole thing. It is a pretty sharp political analysis, I suspect. But it does raise an issue in my mind right now. Where is all the money the anti-war left has to spend coming from. We know from rallies that there are not really all that many of them. Who, exactly, is paying for all of this? I would sure like to know the answer to that. Because we're talking enough money to run election-level television ads for an awfully long time. That is not cheap.