News Stories

[AnimeFan188]

"Crosshairs is a series of radars and microphones just far enough apart to
triangulate the distance and direction of incoming grenades, mortars, and bullets.

Hook Crosshairs up to a remote weapons station, like the CROWS that sits of
atop many U.S. vehicles, it’ll slew the gun right to where the shots came from.
And that “facilitates shooter neutralization,” as manufacturer Mustang Technology
Group oh-so-delicately puts it."

See:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011...s-the-shooter/

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"Crosshairs is a series of radars and microphones just far enough apart to
triangulate the distance and direction of incoming grenades, mortars, and bullets.

Hook Crosshairs up to a remote weapons station, like the CROWS that sits of
atop many U.S. vehicles, it’ll slew the gun right to where the shots came from.
And that “facilitates shooter neutralization,” as manufacturer Mustang Technology
Group oh-so-delicately puts it."

See:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011...s-the-shooter/

And the Singapore Armed Forces is bragging about their HiMARS being state-of-art......

[Ithekro]

I seem to recall something like that happening to I suppose an Iraqi insurgent firing mortars. Let put one or two, and before the third hit the bottom of the tube he exploded from incoming fire.

[ganbaru]

Attack kills 120 Syrian forces; crackdown feared
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...06-06-21-18-28
How much time the syrian gouvernement took to kill 120 manifestants ?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Attack kills 120 Syrian forces; crackdown feared
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...06-06-21-18-28
How much time the syrian gouvernement took to kill 120 manifestants ?

They are scared that the Israelis will kill more than them in due time, hence this backlog breaker. *sarcastic*

[killer3000ad]

Yemeni president has collapsed lung, 40% burns

I think he's finished, every moment he remains outside of Yemen, his already weak grip weakens. Who's next?

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

I seem to recall something like that happening to I suppose an Iraqi insurgent firing mortars. Let put one or two, and before the third hit the bottom of the tube he exploded from incoming fire.

Simply said, you're overestimating this dated APS. Sometimes, this reminds me of the Wunderwaffen in WWII. Its definitly a good time to sell a lot of "works only under laboratory conditions" hardware. I just wait for the first friendly fire incident of such a system.

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by Jinto

Simply said, you're overestimating this dated APS. Sometimes, this reminds me of the Wunderwaffen in WWII. Its definitly a good time to sell a lot of "works only under laboratory conditions" hardware. I just wait for the first friendly fire incident of such a system.

There's a reason they're field testing it before putting it into widespread production. Though I should point out that the Israelis already have such a system in production and it works fairly well.

[ganbaru]

Weiner faces a cool reception from Democrats
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...06-07-03-06-46
That guy is finished.

[bladeofdarkness]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"Crosshairs is a series of radars and microphones just far enough apart to
triangulate the distance and direction of incoming grenades, mortars, and bullets.

Hook Crosshairs up to a remote weapons station, like the CROWS that sits of
atop many U.S. vehicles, it’ll slew the gun right to where the shots came from.
And that “facilitates shooter neutralization,” as manufacturer Mustang Technology
Group oh-so-delicately puts it."

See:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011...s-the-shooter/

why does the article about "Crosshairs" have a video attached to it that is a publicity for "Trophy" ?

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

There's a reason they're field testing it before putting it into widespread production. Though I should point out that the Israelis already have such a system in production and it works fairly well.

the Russians had a (kinda) working system called Drozd even earlier.

[SaintessHeart]

We need an ‘Evil Plan’ to foil our own leaders

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Got your “Evil Plan” yet? You really need one. For self-defense, attacks, plain old survival. Why? Things are bad folks. And they’re going to get much worse. Trust no one. Believe nothing you hear. Nothing.

While reading Hugh MacLeod’s best-seller “Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination” over Memorial Day I ran across a Newsweek feature, “Mad As Hell,” an ominous warning screaming: “The anger that fueled the Arab Spring is now boiling over in Europe. Could club-wielding protesters be in America’s future too?”

Answer? You bet. The Tea Party is just the tip of the spear in the upcoming American Winter that could explode any time into a full-blown “club-wielding” revolution, against Wall Street, Washington, Corporate America and the Super Rich now running our government.

What’s an “Evil Plan?” For MacLeod it started as personal, years ago when he broke free of corporate life, became an entrepreneur, made “a good living, doing what you love, without being accountable to some larger company.” That triggered a revolution.

At first MacLeod jokingly called his decision an “Evil Plan:” Declaring independence, he was no longer controlled by soulless companies, trapped like most Americans in jobs he hated, working to make the rich richer. But the real reason “Evil Plan” fit became clear years later: Some old friends still resent that he “pulled it off,” believe he’s “doing something morally reprehensible.” In their minds, his independence is an “Evil Plan.”

That got me thinking about Mubarak, Kadhafi, Assad and other Arab dictators. They resent the Arab masses for not “staying in their place,” hate them for demonstrating, demanding, rebelling against their dictator’s iron-fisted “rightful” rule. Yes, when the masses rise up, leaders see anyone who wants freedom as a traitor, anyone resisting authority is guided by an “Evil Plan.” And from Libya to Syria, leaders who believe they rule by a divine right also have the right to shoot anyone resisting their authority.

Greatest ‘Evil Plan’ ever was delivered to King George III in 1776

King George III must have seen our Declaration of Independence as an “Evil Plan,” right from the opening lines about: “All men are created equal” and “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another ...” Yes, “Evil Plans” can be treasonous, punishable by death.

MacLeod’s reference to “Black Swan” author Nassim Taleb’s warning is the perfect answer to Newsweek’s question: “Could club-wielding protesters be in America’s future too?” Ironically, the Bush Doctrine of spreading democracy has suddenly reemerged, shifting into high gear from an Arab Spring to European Summer and next to an American Winter. The question is rhetorical. The answer is yes. It happened before, in 1776.

But can we pinpoint the timing of a revolution? No. No one saw the Arab Spring coming. Taleb offers a simple reason: “The bigger the historical event, the more random and unpredictable the consequences. Nobody saw 9/11, Pearl Harbor.” Nor predicted the JFK assassination, Hiroshima, Rome’s collapse, Black Plague or Microsoft and Apple’s beating IBM. Nor the 1929 Crash, 2000 dot-com crash, 2008 subprime meltdown. All game changers.

But our leaders ignored warning signs. “Everything just happened when it did, everybody was caught with their pants down, and everybody just had to deal with the massive unpredictable consequences afterward.”

The Inequality Gap keeps growing, just like in 1929

But is an America Winter really next on some cosmic list of future Black Swans? Yes, and also quite predictable. Why? Because the same economic forces that drove the Arab Spring and today’s European Summer are setting up a hot American Winter.

The Inequality Gap is that force. The gap divides the Super Rich 1% from the rest of America. In “The American Interest” a few months ago Francis Fukuyama, a leading neoconservative, wrote: “A study by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez shows that between 1978 and 2007 the share of U.S. income accruing to the top one percent of American families jumped from 9% to 23.5 % of the total. These data point clearly to the stagnation of working-class incomes in the United States: Real incomes for male workers peaked sometime back in the 1970s and have not recovered since.”

Warning: The last time this Inequality Gap was this big was just before the 1929 Crash and the Great Depression. Trickle-up capitalism: The rich get richer, the masses get poorer. It happened with Arab dictators, in Europe, and it’s coming to a head in America.

Capitalism is class warfare: Today, a generation of Reaganomics missteps has created relentless trickle-up gains, the top 1% got richer. But real income for the have-nots, the bottom 99% has stagnated. Capitalism is destroying the economy, negating the “will of the people” and fueling the coming Second America Revolution. Except this time our George III is a conspiracy of Wall Street, Washington, Corporate America and the Forbes 400 Super Rich.

America’s economic dictators have you in their crosshairs

A picture’s worth a thousand words. Newsweek answers its own question —“could club-wielding protesters could be in America’s future, too?”— with an incendiary photo. The caption speaks loudly: “With jobs scarce, protestors take to the streets carrying a cutout of J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon.” He wears an oversized nametag, “Wall Street Robber Banker.” He’s holding a money bag marked, “Looted Public$.” And all around, a “Mad as Hell” mob, with angry messages on top of what look like clubs.

Imagine “club-wielding protestors” sacking Washington strongholds next. Yes, we had previews of coming attractions in Wisconsin. The governor’s war against public unions. Yes, the American public is “Mad as Hell” concludes Tony Dokoupil in his Newsweek: feature: The “Days of Rage already seen overseas. In Spain last week protesters clashed with police, a violent demonstration against economic woes and austerity measures — much like those under review in Washington.” Our angry masses are a ticking time bomb.

Unfortunately, after the early broadcasts about Eqypt and Libya, cable news shifted back to the bizarre “reality TV” world of Trump, Palin and Romney. But off camera, the “Days of Rage” continued sweeping the Arab world, “exploding out of a volatile mix of high unemployment and large numbers of educated, ambitious people who feel their dreams have been denied — something with which an alarming number of Americans can identify.”

Also back home, the Jamie Dimons of Wall Street, corporate CEOs and the Super Rich continue getting richer, unemployment remains high, food and gasoline prices keep inflating, real estate is in a double-dip recession and the “vast majorities think the country is on the wrong track” inflaming a “rage more profound than the sign-waving political fury documented during the elections last fall. Two thirds of Americans even harbor anger toward God,” warns a Newsweek poll. And “three out of four people believe the economy is stagnant or getting worse.”

For most of us, the American dream — a belief that we can leave a better life for the next generation — has died.
The ultimate ‘Evil Plan:’ When leaders betray the people’s trust

Toward the end of “Evil Plans,” MacLeod reveals a secret: “Evil Plans are gifts: You were given a gift by the Creator, God, the Universe …Whatever. Until you have returned the favor, life will have a certain, feckless emptiness to it.” Yes, even leaders answer to the same higher authority as you and me.

So here’s the big message: When leaders — whether Arab, European or American — rebel against that higher authority at that very moment their “Evil Plans” become “evil” in the classical sense. They are violating the sacred compact between that higher authority, the leader and his people. They lose their right to rule, as did Mubarak, Assad and Kadhafi. And a revolution is ignited.

So today, our world is witnessing a battle of “Evil Plans,” between rulers in Arabia, Europe and America, and the masses they have betrayed.

That same breach must have been much on the mind of Jonathan Chait, a senior editor of th New Republic, when he wrote his damning indictment of the “Ryan Plan” in a Newsweek article. The headline: “War on the Weak: How the GOP came to view the poor as parasites — and the rich as our rightful rulers.”

The same could be said of Arab dictators; here, the GOP’s “rightful rulers” see the public as “parasites.” The goal of the “Ryan Plan” was to destroy Medicare as we know it by converting it into a voucher system favoring GOP’s donors. The public revolted.
Reaganomics, Ayn Rand, the rise of America’s conservative dictators

In brilliantly simple language, Chait captures the meaning of competing “Evil Plans:” Clearly our leaders have disregard the trust vested in them. Since Reaganomics became the GOP’s iron-fisted dogma a generation ago, leaders like Paul Ryan have been feeding on the extreme catechism of Ayn Rand, the patron saint of Reaganomics. Chait says Ryan is a “Rand nut” for admitting that “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.”

But whatever your party affiliation, this gives us deeper insight into the definition of an “Evil Plan” that has dominated the American political scene for a generation, listen:

Writing decades before today’s out-of-control CEO bonuses, Rand could be talking about one of the Arab dictators: “The man at the top of the intellectual pyramid contributes the most to all those below him, but gets nothing except his material payment, receiving no intellectual bonus from others to add to the value of his time. The man at the bottom who, left to himself, would starve in his hopeless ineptitude, contributes nothing to those above him, but receives the bonus of all of their brains.”

What a dark, evil view of the average man. Unfortunately, that extreme demagoguery has become self-destructive for Ryan, the GOP and, sadly, for all America.

Bottom line: You really do need an “Evil Plan.” Now. For self-defense, for counter-attacks, for survival. Things are bad out there. And they are going to get worse. Trust no one. Believe nothing you hear. Nothing.

Why? The collective mind-set of America’s leaders, in both parties, in banking, everywhere, is in cover-up mode, hiding behind hype, lies and happy talk. Lacking discipline, they are out-of-control money addicts, self-destructive, unable to stop themselves.

And like our early warnings of the 2000 dot-com crash and the 2008 meltdown, the coming collapse is so predictable. But as before they cannot hear. But you must, you need an “Evil Plan.” Start now, before it’s too late.

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

We need an ‘Evil Plan’ to foil our own leaders

This proves how evil is a point of view. It is evil for us, the people, to wake up to revolt against the unfairness, from the pov of the rulers and the rich because we're not complying to the rules they set up for us. I have to agree completely with the highlited text too. Rulers have been money-driven for longer than any of us existed. I have to wonder if that will ever change.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Vexx

good gods will they QUIT "re-imagining" the UI? To most folks, it means having to relearn where they hid the SAME functionality over and over.

The release of the new "Unity" interface in Ubuntu 11.04 has produced vast amounts of crying and gnashing of teeth over on the Ubuntu Forums. The comparisons to Windows 8 were inevitable as well since both seem targeted more toward the tablet market than desktop computing.

KDE users like me already went through the torment that was the transition to KDE 4.x. Now that it has matured, it's become a remarkably stable and flexible desktop.

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

If this was done in retaliation for criticism of Wikileaks, then it really doesn't make them any more different the national governments. Hypocrisy much?

I watched the Frontline show that was the apparent target for the attacks on PBS. (You can, too. No promises on region-locking, though.) Personally I thought it offered a sensitive portrayal of Daniel Manning, the soldier accused of uploading classified materials to Wikileaks, and a balanced portrayal of Julian Assange. I guess if you engage in actual journalism and not portray Assange as purely an avenging angel of light, your reward is to be hacked. Maybe it's because they let Adrian Lamo speak his piece?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Tsuyoshi

This proves how evil is a point of view. It is evil for us, the people, to wake up to revolt against the unfairness, from the pov of the rulers and the rich because we're not complying to the rules they set up for us. I have to agree completely with the highlited text too. Rulers have been money-driven for longer than any of us existed. I have to wonder if that will ever change.

Just to quote from an anime I have left hanging for weeks due to exams :

You can't tell an ordinary man and a weirdo apart until they act. - Ebara, C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

I think it is not impossible for us to act on our own and take back what the rich owners of Big Corp had taken from us, it is just that as they amass more money and bootlickers at their feet, they are harder to take down, or break even with them, or to survive their assaults without much effort.

The idea of working hard has become decadent because we all age, get old, and our muscles atrophy. The only thing that survives with us till old age is our mind, in fact, for everyone it is our only weapon against Big Corp executives. It is how we use it.

Personally, I agreed with the author because most of us are just sitting ducks out there. For those who are tied down by their family background, it is pitiful and sad to be them, but the middle-income class and the government are just doing nothing; the former going about their lives without taking into account Murphy's Law, while the latter are just lining their own pockets with taxes, both corporate, citizen and GST.

I don't think I want to be stuck in the lower-middle income class any longer like my previous 2 generations. It's time to read more, save more and move up. Pushing for $1700/mth salary isn't going to be easy without any "work experience" (I have no idea where to get that from though), but at least that is better than sitting down and dying.

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Just to quote from an anime I have left hanging for weeks due to exams :

You can't tell an ordinary man and a weirdo apart until they act. - Ebara, C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

I think it is not impossible for us to act on our own and take back what the rich owners of Big Corp had taken from us, it is just that as they amass more money and bootlickers at their feet, they are harder to take down, or break even with them, or to survive their assaults without much effort.

The idea of working hard has become decadent because we all age, get old, and our muscles atrophy. The only thing that survives with us till old age is our mind, in fact, for everyone it is our only weapon against Big Corp executives. It is how we use it.

Personally, I agreed with the author because most of us are just sitting ducks out there. For those who are tied down by their family background, it is pitiful and sad to be them, but the middle-income class and the government are just doing nothing; the former going about their lives without taking into account Murphy's Law, while the latter are just lining their own pockets with taxes, both corporate, citizen and GST.

I don't think I want to be stuck in the lower-middle income class any longer like my previous 2 generations. It's time to read more, save more and move up. Pushing for $1700/mth salary isn't going to be easy without any "work experience" (I have no idea where to get that from though), but at least that is better than sitting down and dying.

Hey, don't get me wrong, I agree with everything the author said (I don't see how I came out giving any other impression iibh). Most of us are slaves to a system that corporate execs and politicians funded by said corporatists which force us to work for them, else we will end up with nothing because we essentially have to pay for every neccessity because there's little else we can get otherwise. The existence of mortgages and college loans doesn't make things any easier, and we can't lead the life we would hope to unless we become entrepeneurs ourselves and join the richmen's club (something else I'm not too keen on). Indeed, getting work experience is also becoming increasingly difficult these days, causing us little folk to be stuck at where we are more easily What we really need is a complete change of system, a revolution, like the author is saying.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Tsuyoshi

Hey, don't get me wrong, I agree with everything the author said (I don't see how I came out giving any other impression iibh). Most of us are slaves to a system that corporate execs and politicians funded by said corporatists which force us to work for them, else we will end up with nothing because we essentially have to pay for every neccessity because there's little else we can get otherwise. The existence of mortgages and college loans doesn't make things any easier, and we can't lead the life we would hope to unless we become entrepeneurs ourselves and join the richmen's club (something else I'm not too keen on). Indeed, getting work experience is also becoming increasingly difficult these days, causing us little folk to be stuck at where we are more easily What we really need is a complete change of system, a revolution, like the author is saying.

Actually I don't agree wholly with the author because he is insinuating that all of us have the power to punch a revolution into the air. With so many of the apathetic around, it would take a serious case to start a revolution, otherwise, most of us would just slog our lives away at the expense of our future generations.

I don't intend to join the rich-man's club, and maybe I'll become an entrepreneur. But I want to be financially free first; working for no future is as good as suffering, and suffering itself, is worse than death.

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Actually I don't agree wholly with the author because he is insinuating that all of us have the power to punch a revolution into the air. With so many of the apathetic around, it would take a serious case to start a revolution, otherwise, most of us would just slog our lives away at the expense of our future generations.

I don't intend to join the rich-man's club, and maybe I'll become an entrepreneur. But I want to be financially free first; working for no future is as good as suffering, and suffering itself, is worse than death.

That is true, despite the fact that people can write articles like this, people in the west are much more oblivious to what's happening compared to the people who started the revolt in the middle east. Greece started to fire up because things there are pretty bad, as you know.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Tsuyoshi

That is true, despite the fact that people can write articles like this, people in the west are much more oblivious to what's happening compared to the people who started the revolt in the middle east. Greece started to fire up because things there are pretty bad, as you know.

One thing that I learned is that we all must plan for the worst, and no matter what happens, we must have options because doing something we don't want to will simply breed guilt one way or another.

Greece, TBH, is pathetic. Neither party wants to give up any ground, and there is too much welfare being pumped into the system while the country's economy stayed stagnant. Another thing is that, a civil strife is going to hurt any potential investment, and that is what they need.

The citizens really need to give up their welfare, the government needs to spend less on their social welfare and put some of that money into encouraging entrepreneurship then market the hell out of it - the really safe way to attract investment. Depending on tourism is too much, I don't think they have much of a manufacturing infrastructure at all.

EDIT : For those of you who missed it in the Laughs thread

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

There's a reason they're field testing it before putting it into widespread production. Though I should point out that the Israelis already have such a system in production and it works fairly well.

I doubt the israeli anti artillery system will work against mortar fire, since the response time is too short for the system (imo)... in the shortrange segment the israeli system is optimized for middle ranged weapons like qassams (which makes sense in the case of the typical israeli defence scenario in the border regions).

[bladeofdarkness]

Originally Posted by Jinto

I doubt the israeli anti artillery system will work against mortar fire, since the response time is too short for the system (imo)... in the shortrange segment the israeli system is optimized for middle ranged weapons like qassams (which makes sense in the case of the typical israeli defence scenario in the border regions).

I think the system Kamui4356 was talking about is "Trophy".

not the counter artillery "Iron dome" system.