Happened after I shut down for Shabbos.
TeamBank, National Association, Paola, KS
Colorado National Bank, Colorado Springs, CO
FirstCity Bank, Stockbridge, GA
Full List
Bank failure numbers18, 19, and 20 in 11 weeks.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
People With Too Much Time On Their Hands
Clips of actors who appeared both in Star Trek and Wild Wild West.
Boeing Unveils LO F-15
It appears that Boeing is looking to extend the life of the F-15 Eagle with a technological update (also here and here) called the Silent Eagle.The two most obvious changes are creating weapons bays in the conformal fuel tanks and the canted tails, though it is also reported that there is a fair amount of radar absorbent material (RAM) added, including a frangable gun cover that hearkens back to how armorers treated the guns in WWII.
There are apparently no radar blockers in the inlets, even though Boeing has extensive experience with them in the F/A-18 E/F, because of potential export issues.
This implies that Boeing has decided (correctly IMHO) that they have no chance of selling these to the USAF, who have eyes for nothing for the F-22 and F-35.
They are suggesting a $100m unit price, though it is not made clear in any of the articles as to whether this is unit price, or fly-away cost.
The implication is that $100m will be cheaper than the F-35 JSF, and perhaps this is less an exercise to sell more F-15s than it is to sell more F/A-18E/Fs by implying that the JSF will break 9 figures in cost.
If they are implying this, they are probably right. The JSF shows a lot of signs of cost escalation and schedule slippage.
Powerpoint courtesy of The DEW Line, video of missile actuator courtesy of Boeing.
Russia to Deploy MIRVs When Start-1 Expires in December
This may be a negotiating ploy because while they have announced plans to activate regiment of RS-24 missiles with MIRVs, they are also saying that they want to negotiate a new arms control agreement.
Not sure how much is solid plans, and how much is gamesmanship.
Not sure how much is solid plans, and how much is gamesmanship.
Potential Rafale Sale to Libya
It makes sense.
Khaddafi has signed a deal for 6 months exclusive negotiations for the Rafale.
This purchase actually makes sense for Libya, because they have a reasonable chance of being able to continue to operate the aircraft even in the face of an embargo by the US, such as the sort that grounded the Venezuelan F-16s, and the competitors, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and SAAB Gripen, both have significantly more US content.
This would be the first foreign sale of the Rafale, and I'm sure that the French foreign ministry and Dassault are both drooling at the prospect.
Khaddafi has signed a deal for 6 months exclusive negotiations for the Rafale.
This purchase actually makes sense for Libya, because they have a reasonable chance of being able to continue to operate the aircraft even in the face of an embargo by the US, such as the sort that grounded the Venezuelan F-16s, and the competitors, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and SAAB Gripen, both have significantly more US content.
This would be the first foreign sale of the Rafale, and I'm sure that the French foreign ministry and Dassault are both drooling at the prospect.
US Submarine and LPD Collide in Strait of Hormuz
Yadda, Yadda, Yadda
Another flying car. This one from Terrafugia.It appears to be very much on the "roadable plane" side of the roadable plane/flying car divide, and I rather expect that it will be like the rest: single digit production followed by an exit of the business.
In any case, here is a vid of their first flight.
It really appears to love the ground a lot, but that may be because of its relatively long wheel base relative to dedicated aircraft, requiring more force to rotate.
The Navy is Doing This Because the USAF Can't Be Bothered
After years of ground troops begging for something lower, slower, and with more short field capability, it is the US Navy that is considering a solution, the Super Tucano turboprop trainer configured for the light attack mission.You could probably buy 50 of these aircraft for the price of one JSF, and it can loiter over the battle area for a much longer period of time, and spot things that the fast movers would miss.
Shades of the A-1 Skyraider, which wasn't a USAF idea either.
Naval aviation is fighting it, because, well, has a propeller and all, but it looks like this will actually be used, because it's what the guy on the ground needs.
Worldwide War Pigs: Drop Tank IRST Tests Well For Supers
About 1 ¾ years ago, I wrote about how Boeing was looking into putting an Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST) on the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet by fitting it to the front half of a center-line drop tank.Well, Boeing has completed successful flight tests on the system, which is supplied by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control*.
There hasn't been an aircraft in the US inventory with an IRST for air-to-air since the F-14 Tomcat was retired, but Russian and European fighters have embraced this technology.
The advantages of going passive are real, though I would wonder about the reliability of the system under the very turbulent and vibration laden environment beneath the Super Bug.
My original post on this.
H/t Worldwide War Pigs
*Full disclosure, I worked at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in the late 1990s.†
†Yes, I have worked everywhere. Maybe I can't hold down a job, but more likely this has been my role as "technical hit man", where you are parachuted in to take care of a specific need.
China’s Chengdu J-10 Modified
It appears that there have been some upgrades and/or fixes to China’s Chengdu J-10 canard-delta fighter.If you look at the top (newer) image it appears that an Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST) unit has been added just forward of the cockpit, and that the inlet has been modified from the original aircraft (bottom).
Douglas Barrie thinks that there may have been vibration or air flow instability issues with the original inlet, but it looks to me more like an attempt to reduce RCS in the forward aspect.
Or maybe it's a buff with photoshop.
Them Rooshans Make Good Bang Seats
Watch this crash of an SU-24 at what I think is an Iranian air show, and you will believe, as Stephen Trimble notes, that the performance of their ejection seats in impressive (crash at about 1m30s):
Trippy Helo Concept
It's a coaxial tilt rotor, and Baldwin Technology is pitching it as a cargo UAV capable of carrying a 3000 lb capacity pallet.
The first is more the test models, the 2nd more operational concept.
The first is more the test models, the 2nd more operational concept.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Oh Lord, Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz (Zimbabwe Edition)
So it now appears that foul play has been ruled out in the Tsvangerai crash, and MDC official Roy Bennett has been released from custody.
That being said, Mugabe's attempts to maintain his political power have gotten truly surreal:
I'm an optimist, and see this as a sign of weakness.
Mugabe had previously dismissed the MDC entirely, and how he is trying to bribe them.
That being said, Mugabe's attempts to maintain his political power have gotten truly surreal:
On his first day as education minister in a government so broke that most schools were closed and millions of children idle, David Coltart said he got a startling invitation.(I would have offered him silver, or metallic blue, myself.)
“Come and get your brand-new white Mercedes,” an official told Mr. Coltart, a veteran opposition politician, as President Robert Mugabe peered down from a portrait on the minister’s office wall.
The offer of an E-Class Mercedes to every minister in the month-old power-sharing government was vintage Mugabe, an effort to seduce his political enemies with the lavish perks he has long bestowed on loyalists.
I'm an optimist, and see this as a sign of weakness.
Mugabe had previously dismissed the MDC entirely, and how he is trying to bribe them.
Great Googly Moogly: Larry Summers Wants to be Fed Chairman
It appears that Barney Frank and Chris Dodd have differences in the future course of regulation.
Specifically, Frank favors giving the Federal Reserve the job of managing "systemic risk" under any new regulations, and Dodd thinks that the Fed, with its history of unresponsiveness and opacity is ill suited to the task.
Well, it now appears that much of the smear campaign against Dodd may have come from Larry Summers, who would be first in line to be Federal Reserve chairman if Obama does not reappoint Bernanke, and so he went after Dodd in order to strengthen Frank's hand in making the Fed the chief regulator.
I'm beginning to think that anyone who has "friend of Robert Rubin" on their resume should be barred from any position of authority.
Un-dirtyword-believable.
Specifically, Frank favors giving the Federal Reserve the job of managing "systemic risk" under any new regulations, and Dodd thinks that the Fed, with its history of unresponsiveness and opacity is ill suited to the task.
Well, it now appears that much of the smear campaign against Dodd may have come from Larry Summers, who would be first in line to be Federal Reserve chairman if Obama does not reappoint Bernanke, and so he went after Dodd in order to strengthen Frank's hand in making the Fed the chief regulator.
I'm beginning to think that anyone who has "friend of Robert Rubin" on their resume should be barred from any position of authority.
Un-dirtyword-believable.
The Stupid, It Burns Us!!!!!
It looks like Senate Republicans have decided to do whatever is possible to slow the AIG bonus bill.
Why?
I'm not sure, but never stop your opponent from stepping on his own dick.
Why?
I'm not sure, but never stop your opponent from stepping on his own dick.
Former Head of AIG CDS Terrorists Hires Lawyer
It looks like US and British authorities are investigating possible criminal activity.
Here's hoping they find some, and send him away for a very long time.
Here's hoping they find some, and send him away for a very long time.
The Cemeteries of the World are Full of Indispensable Men*
The former chief economist of the IMF has an Op-Ed in the New York Times, and he makes the point that removing the "geniuses" who created the problem has to be the first step of fixing the problem:
*Charles de Gaulle, a man not known for his own sense of personal dispensablity, coined this bon mot.
A.I.G. can hardly claim that its generous bonuses attract the best and the brightest. So instead, it defends the payments by arguing they’re needed to retain employees who are crucial for winding down transactions that are “difficult to understand and manage.” In other words, only the people who stuck the knife into the American International Group can neatly extract it for a decent burial.The longer that we put this off, the worse it will be.
There is no reason to believe this.
Similar arguments made during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, when currencies and stock markets collapsed in much of Southeast Asia, turned out to be a smokescreen to protect the executives who were partly responsible for the mess. Recovery from that crisis required Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand to close or consolidate banks. In all three countries, bankers protested, claiming that their connections with borrowers were critical to recovery.
...
The lesson of all this is that when insiders have broken a financial institution, the most direct remedy is to kick them out. Traders are hardly in short supply, and you don’t need to rely on the ones who made the toxic trades in the first place. Companies must always plan around the potential departure of even their star traders, or they are certain to fail. A.I.G. does not need to keep all of its traders, especially since it takes far fewer people to unwind a portfolio than to build it up.
*Charles de Gaulle, a man not known for his own sense of personal dispensablity, coined this bon mot.
Cows...Barn Doors...And the US Government
So, we have the government looking to legislation giving them the authority that the FDIC does when it shuts down banks for not bank entities, such as bank holding companies and hedge funds.
And in related news, the FDIC is looking for additional authority to acutally write regulations, a function which is currently does not have.
It has strong enforcement powers, but, "but only the Federal Reserve, Office of Thrift Supervision and National Credit Union Administration can write the regulation it enforces."
It's about time.
And in related news, the FDIC is looking for additional authority to acutally write regulations, a function which is currently does not have.
It has strong enforcement powers, but, "but only the Federal Reserve, Office of Thrift Supervision and National Credit Union Administration can write the regulation it enforces."
It's about time.
What Prima Donnas
Well, it appears that Senator Evah Bahy's (DINO-IN) new moderate caucus is getting some pushback from their constituents, and they are crying like a bunch of "girlie men", to quote the governator.
It appears that Rachel Maddow covered this, and called them "conservadems", and they are getting some calls from voters in their states telling them to get with the program.
How many calls are they getting?
Seriously, these folks are used to obstructing progressive programs, and then getting a pat on the head from villagers inside the beltway, but now, with someone pointing them out as trying to stifle change, they get 20 phone calls and more than a dozen emails, and they are whining about how people are mean to them.
Listen, if you suck up to Wall Street, who destroyed our 401(k)s, and you suck up to large food processors, who put poison in our peanuts, because they contribute to your campaign, you deserve whatever flak that you catch.
Cry me a fracking river.
It appears that Rachel Maddow covered this, and called them "conservadems", and they are getting some calls from voters in their states telling them to get with the program.
How many calls are they getting?
Maddow's five-minute "conservadem" segment last Thursday provoked at least 20 calls Monday to Udall's office and more than a dozen e-mails to Democratic Party headquarters in Colorado.So now they are crying about how awful people are to them.
Seriously, these folks are used to obstructing progressive programs, and then getting a pat on the head from villagers inside the beltway, but now, with someone pointing them out as trying to stifle change, they get 20 phone calls and more than a dozen emails, and they are whining about how people are mean to them.
Listen, if you suck up to Wall Street, who destroyed our 401(k)s, and you suck up to large food processors, who put poison in our peanuts, because they contribute to your campaign, you deserve whatever flak that you catch.
Cry me a fracking river.
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