Boeing 747-800 information and other observations

Just a quick post and a break from the usual rants lately involving Obunglercare and the other political shenanigans happening on DC on the Potomac,

 I went camping with the cub scouts and ran the BB range for them this weekend.  I just came back and had to get some stuff handled then get ready for work tonight.  I figured I would post pics and information of my favorite airplane.  I shamelessly cribbed this stuff off "Aviation News"

October 18, 2013
Credit: Boeing

Facing weakened demand for big passenger and freight aircraft, Boeing has opted to reduce the 747-8 production rate from 1.75 aircraft per month to 1.5 through 2015.
The move comes as the company passes the half way point of its accumulated order backlog for the aircraft, the vast majority of which are for the freighter model. To date, the 747-8 has accumulated 107 orders, 56 of which have been delivered.
The sustained slow down in the cargo market is the main reason for the cutback, even though Boeing’s market forecast calls for long-term average growth in the air cargo market to begin returning in 2014. Overall the company forecasts global demand for 760 large aircraft in the 747-8 and Airbus A380 category over the next 20 years, valued at $280 billion.
Boeing’s outlook for the 747-8 market could also be impacted by the development of the 777X, which is expected to enter service at the turn of the decade. For the moment Eric Lindblad, vice president and general manager, 747 Program, Boeing Commercial Airplanes says “this production adjustment better aligns us with near-term demand while stabilizing our production flow. Although we are making a small adjustment to our production rate, it doesn’t change our confidence in the 747-8 or our commitment to the program.”

May 21, 2013
Credit: General Electric

Boeing has begun flight tests of a 747-8 passenger model powered by upgraded General Electric GEnx-2B engines, which are expected to improve fuel burn by a further 1.8%.
The flight tests, using RC021, an aircraft formerly destined for Lufthansa, began on May 20 with a four-hour flight from Everett, Wash. The flight evaluated the initial performance of the GEnx-2B Performance Improvement Package (PIP), as well as upgrades to the flight management computer (FMC) software. These latter changes—incorporated as FMC 3.0—will add improved required navigation performance and “quiet climb” functionality.
The FMC changes also are related to the activation of the aircraft’s horizontal tail fuel tank, the design and operation of which will also be validated in the test program. The 3,300-gal. tailplane fuel tank, which is a feature only in the passenger version, was de-activated before the first aircraft entered service when analysis indicated that, under certain fuel load circumstances, the tail tank could induce flutter.
Re-activation of the tail fuel tank will provide added range and improve the aircraft’s performance says Lufthansa, the launch customer of the 747-8. The extra weight of the fuel in the aft of the aircraft can be used to assist in trimming the 747-8 to lower cruise drag. As a result, the airline asked Boeing to make minor software changes to the fuel transfer system which would extend the length of time the fuel remains in the aft tank, thereby increasing the trim benefit.
Boeing says that as a result of the latest batch of enhancements—plus other upgrades introduced since the aircraft entered service in 2011—it will have produced a combined 3.3% improvement in efficiency. Eric Lindblad, vice president and general manager of the 747 program, says the 1.8% fuel-burn improvement from the package now under test will save airlines “approximately $1 million per year in fuel per airplane and reduces the carbon footprint.”
To combat the original GEnx-2B’s fuel-burn shortfall of more than 2%, GE designed an all-new low-pressure turbine, and added compressor, combustor and turbine improvements derived from the second batch of upgrades devised for the GEnx-1B engine on the 787.
Flight tests of the -2B PIP were conducted on GE’s 747 flying testbed earlier this year, and a final round of ground tests are nearing completion with FAR Part 33 certification expected by mid-year.
Boeing says the new configuration will first be delivered in early 2014 and be available for retrofit. Entry into service of the new engines and FMC software will take place in late 2013. The test aircraft, originally destined to be Lufthansa’s fifth 747-8, will be used for flight testing throughout 2013 and refurbished for onward sale in 2014, either as a standard airliner or for a possible business jet modification.

December 20, 2012
Credit: Joe Walker

Lufthansa and Boeing have agreed that a 747-8 previously allocated for delivery to the airline will now become a dedicated test aircraft for a set of airframe, system and engine improvements due for delivery in late 2013.
The aircraft, Line Number 1435, first flew in April 2011 but has already been used for some upgrade testing and will now continue in this role rather than be refurbished for Lufthansa. The move, which was triggered by the need to flight test a revised tail fuel system for activation on later aircraft, means that Lufthansa’s firm order book backlog reduces from 20 to 19, though the airline hints that this may only be a temporary reduction.
Lufthansa is still scheduled to take five 747-8s as planned in 2013, and 10 more aircraft by the end of 2015 that will incorporate the lighter structure and improved systems and engines. The airline currently has four 747-8s in service.
Explaining the decision, the German carrier’s 747-8 chief pilot Elmar Boje says the extensive flight test modifications already made to the aircraft would mean that, even after post-test refurbishment, the unit would be a non-standard “white elephant” in the Lufthansa fleet. However, he adds the airline’s long-range fleet group is due to decide on adding additional aircraft by the third quarter of 2013, some of which could include 747-8s.
Although the decision effectively shrinks Boeing’s overall 747-8 backlog to 71, the manufacturer is putting a brave face on the move because a variety of upgrade testing, including the General Electric GEnx-2B performance improvement package (PIP), can now be bundled into one dedicated certification effort. “The plan was to use a 747-8F freighter for the PIP flight test, but when we de-activated the tail fuel we needed an -8 Intercontinental” to flight test the revised system, says 747 vice president and general manager Elizabeth Lund. “That’s when we started our conversation with Lufthansa.”
The aircraft, originally destined to be Lufthansa’s fifth 747-8, will be used for flight testing throughout 2013 and refurbished for onward sale in 2014 as either a standard airliner or for possible business jet modification.
“Lufthansa opted to take a new aircraft instead in 2014,” says Lund. “So as a result, we had to pull this one out and delay delivery to next year. Lufthansa reserves the right to add another at the end. We asked to use it, and it was already instrumented for tail fuel testing. So all in all it’s a good business decision by them,” she adds.
Improvements to be tested next year are concentrated on the upgraded engine configuration and tail tank fuel system, though also include updates to the flight management computer (FMC) to incorporate additional required navigation performance features and a ‘quiet climb’ function.

The FMC 3.0 load is scheduled for the end of 2013

Dismayed and discouraged....

I an dismayed and disheartened by what I have seen, I have seen the establishment GOP knife the conservative members in the back, I see more of the same in the future.  I am wondering if we as a nation have the stones to continue to fight or have enough of the American people have gotten addicted to the government cheese to sign away their birthright for the illusion of security.  I remember the Reagan Revolution from the malaise of Jimmy Carter who until recent memory was the crappiest president in modern American history.
     I remember when Bill Clinton got away with perjury(not oral sex) as the pundits claimed during the impeachment hearing.  I remember W getting his win over legions of Chads and democrat lawyers who tried to kick out the military vote the same time they were trying to pad the election results with extra democrat voters in very democrat areas like Broward county.  I remember the attacks on 9/11 when we became a united country until the democrats more interested in loyalty to party than loyalty to country.  I also remember W becoming the spendiest president until the petulant boy king assumed the Presidency in 2008.  I remember Bush the younger pushing through the Patriot act and forming Department of Homeland security 2 organizations that Obungler has used to great effect on his political enemies and the American people to help establish a police state the likes that would make Stasi proud and the KGB envious. 
     I am disheartened and dismayed that the establishment GOP saw the need to stick it to the Tea Party when the Tea Party caucus was the reason of the GOP getting the house back from the democrats in 2010.  The establishment GOP is more concerned about getting along with the monolithic democrats than standing on principles.  They keep forgetting that life goes on outside the beltway and many people have given up on the GOP, you know the same people that gave you John McCain who threatened to leave the GOP earlier in the decade.   The Establishment GOP after getting the House back in 2010 had the real opportunity to boot Obungler out and make him a 1 term president like Jimmy Carter was. , After running the most inept campaign in history instead of winning, we got Rommney, Who had good credentials but couldn't go against Obunglercare the most hated piece of legislation in recent history.  Many people like me held my nose and voted for him even though we were not happy.  Many other conservatives knowing that Mitt was establishment GOP refused to vote at all and giving Obungler a win and a mistaken belief that he has a mandate.
     Now they have caved and surrendered like SOP for the GOP, now we will have to deal with this crap again in January which plays to the democrats plan to drag this to the 2014 elections where they will use it as a blugeon against the GOP instead of the 2014 being a referendum on Obunglercare.  We have a crushing debt, massive entitlement spending and no one wants to make the hard calls to fix the problem.  I am a fairly sharp guy one of the sharper knives in the cutlery drawer, I wonder where the Ginsu blades on the GOP are?  Don't they see the same thing? or are they just blinded by life in the beltway and forget what the real world is like.   I fear for my country, the future that my son will inherit and his generation will have to deal with the failures of the politicians to fix the problems instead of kicking it down the road.

     I pulled the following article from Breitbart and I liked what Ben wrote, perhaps somebody in the GOP can do this to keep from getting hammered  in January........
    

The latest Republican cave should teach conservatives two particular lessons. First, crisis politics never benefit conservatives. When there is a crisis, the side with the media at its back and unity in its caucus will always win. That side is the Democrats. Crises do not work to conservatives’ advantage; the left can simply demonize conservatives by suggesting that their stance against massive government interventionism is a stance against the American people. In the fact of that pressure, the fractious Republican caucus is likely to buckle.
Second, the American people understand and like funding on a case-by-case basis. When Republicans passed an individual bill funding vital defense concerns, President Obama was forced to sign it, even despite his moratorium on signing funding without doing so for the whole federal ball of wax.
On January 15, America is slated to require a new continuing resolution. President Obama is itching for a replay of this fight closer to the November 2014 midterm elections. Republicans should not give it to him. Instead, they should spend every day between now and then passing individual spending bills and forcing Democrats to reject them in the Senate, or President Obama to veto them. Then the creation of a funding crisis itself will be on President Obama from the start. This also happens to be the way the founders envisioned funding the government, rather than through massive, pork-filled omnibus packages.
Can Republicans win victories by controlling the purse? They sure can, but only if they don’t wait until President Obama and the Democrats demand, at the point of bayonet, that Republicans open the vault. Instead, Republicans should pay the bills one at a time, just the like other Americans do. Then we’d be spared the drama and the crisis – or, at the very least, the cynical dramatics of watching the President of the United States and his Senate Majority Leader henchman claim that Republicans are the bad guys, even as they kill hundreds of spending bills even their own constituents like.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).

Monday Music..."Voices Carry" and other musings.....

Sorry about lack of postings...I have been very busy, I am assistant scoutmaster at one troop and my son in a scout in another so basically I go to 2 meetings and they are on Monday and Tuesday. 

     I will get to my "Monday Music" Which is "Voices Carry" by "Till Tuesday...(Kinda appropriate there) in a minute..or two but first I will do a few intemperate thoughts.  Y'all by now have heard of the EBT glitches that have hit 17 states....Perhaps I am a bit paranoid but this is the first time there has been a widespread "glitch"

    
The welfare state is unsustainable because of welfare brood mares like This Freeloader

If you want a perfect snapshot of the dysfunction that is poverty in America, you won’t see a more perfect one than in the above video. (video at linked site) Angel Adams of Tampa, Florida, has fifteen children by three different fathers.

15 children by three different fathers! Holy crap! And not a single one is still with her.

When her “fiancé,” who had already fathered ten of those children got sent to jail, she says things began to fall apart. She and twelve of her children are now living in a single hotel room, without shoes, without food, and without clean clothes.

 And, of course, she doesn’t have a job. All she knows is getting preggers and expecting other people to pay for her irresponsibility in having 15 children that she cannot afford to raise.

Adams blames social services for failing to help her. Social service agencies, however, claim that they were trying to help, and paid for rent, utilities, and even furniture. In addition, Adams admits, community members have been helping with food.

What about the other fathers? Shouldn’t they help this baby momma?

“Somebody,” Adams says, “needs to pay for all my children . . . somebody needs to be held accountable, and they need to pay.” And there’s your underclass snapshot: It’s somebody else’s problem. 

That is the problem, The underclass expect others to help them, and there is no gratitude, just expectation.  They believe that they are "owed" this for being a mouthbreather.   We had this weekend where Wal-mart in Louisiana had a problem with the EBT cards and no limit indicated,

MANSFIELD, LA (KSLA) – Shelves in Walmart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, LA were reportedly cleared Saturday night, when the stores allowed purchases on EBT cards even though they were not showing limits.
The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind numerous carts filled to overflowing, apparently abandoned when the glitch-spurred shopping frenzy ended.
Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Walmart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Walmart was so packed, “It was worse than any black Friday” that he’s ever seen.

The same people used their Obamaphones and contacted each other and that " the free shit at Walmart"  This was on some of the twitter feeds that I read.

Lynd explained the cards weren’t showing limits and they called corporate Walmart, whose spokesman said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700.00 and only had .49 on her card. She was held by police until corporate Walmart said they wouldn’t press charges if she left the food.
Lynd says at 9 p.m., when the cards came back online and it was announced over the loud speaker, people just left their carts full of food in the aisles and left.

The free stuff be gone.
     I work at the food pantry in my county, I see these people come in with their obamaphones, bling, and bitch at the food we GIVE them.  They demand much and there is no gratitude involved.  I have seen people that are happy to get anything, and those are the ones I like to help, they appreciate it.  The freeloaders demand and expect it because they believe that they are entitled and "Owed"   I have many issues with this.  We are creating another generation of "Gimmedats"   What will happen when the EBT cards go silent for several days...?

     Also The veterans showed up at the D.C on the Potomac and carried the "Barrycades" back to the White House" as a message to the petulant boy-King. that closing off memorials to Veterans is a big No-No

Now we have the Senate GOP caving like a Apartment building in India to the Democrats.  They are more concerned about holding on to their power and perks than handling the business that they were elected to.  They want to kick the can down the road and have another standoff with Obungler in January on the budget and Debt.  They keep hoping to find a way out of this but when Obama and the Democrats are monolithic( Collective groups are like that) there is no give, they want and expect the GOP to give up and slink away.  With the able assistance of the mainstream media they have been very successful in controlling the narrative and the blame.

  My Monday Music song is "Voices Carry" by the group "Till Tuesday"

"Voices Carry" is a song written and performed by American New Wave band 'Til Tuesday. It was produced by Mike Thorne for the group's debut album Voices Carry, released in 1985. The song's lyrics, written by Aimee Mann, are about past sour relationships and were originally written and sung as if to a woman, but changed due to Epic Records' pressure. The song was inspired by Mann's breakup with Hausman.
The single achieved strong American radio airplay and MTV rotation in the summer of that year.
Directed by D.J. Webster, the accompanying music video received wide exposure on MTV, positive reactions from critics, was nominated for numerous awards, and it is attributed to be the reason behind the song's success. It was released in North America in March 1985 to positive reviews from music critics. "Voices Carry" became the band's highest charting single and their only top ten hit in the U.S., peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. Internationally it reached the top twenty in Canada and Australia.    
"Voices Carry" was recorded in 1985 at RPM Sound Studios in New York. The song is about past sour relationships, and was originally written and sung by Aimee Mann as to a woman 'Til Tuesday rehearsed that format in Boston the previous summer, but Epic was unhappy with the lyrics; they thought that it was a "very powerful, commercial song", and wanted to remove the lesbian components to appeal to the mainstream market.
Despite the pressure to replace the lyrics, producer Mike Thorne thought that "it didn't matter any to the impact of the song itself", and the band eventually changed the gender of the love interest. At the beginning, 'Til Tuesday and Thorne were undecided between "Love in a Vacuum" and "Looking over My Shoulder" to be released as the first single, but ultimately Epic's A&R executive Dick Wingate chose "Voices Carry", because it "define[d] precisely the band and its style". According to Thorne, his contract stated that he had the right to be the first to remix the song for the 7" single release. He was then told that it had been remixed by Bob Clearmountain; about this he commented, "not what the rules were [...] but it sounded pretty good, as well it might coming from one of the finest American engineer/producers".

The music video for "Voices Carry" was directed by D.J. Webster, and filmed at Dorchester's Strand Theater, in Boston. The clip incorporates dialogue and acting, and resembles a mini-movie. The plot centers around the band's lead singer, Aimee Mann, who appears as a musician with a violent boyfriend, played by actor Cully Holland. He mistreats her for playing in a rock band, and demands that she change her look to fit in his upper-class lifestyle. The video uses spoken dialogue in between to interrupt the musical parts, including Mann's boyfriend demands: "Why can't you for once do something for me?". At the end she lashes out at him during a concert at Carnegie Hall, she stands up from her seat in the audience and yells the lyrics—"He said, shut up! He said, shut up! Oh God, can't you keep it down?..."—as she removes her cap to reveal her spiky, rat-tailed hair.
The success of the single was largely attributed to the video,^[26] which received wide exposure on MTV, along with positive reactions from critics and nominations to numerous awards. Keith Thomas of Knight Ridder newspapers called the video "a clever and stunning effort". Praising the dialogue and acting he said that it "looks better than most feature films", adding that "everything about the clip is grand". Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times also praised Mann's acting, saying that she appears "marvelously charismatic" in it, while Dennis Hunt from the same newspaper said that it was "cleverly conceived". Debbie del Condo of the Orlando Sentinel called it the "Most Memorable Video of 1985", and added that she will "keep waiting for their next video". In his book Totally awesome 80s, author Matthew Rettenmund called it a "great story video". Author Brent Mann in his book 99 Red Balloons..., called the video "pure New Wave" and added that it was "perfect for MTV and VH1 consumption".
At the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards, the band won the award for Best New Artist in a video.The same year, at the Fourth Annual American Video Awards, Mann was named the Best Female Performer in a video for "Voices Carry". The video was placed number forty on Slant Magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Music Videos",and was listed on Pitchfork Media's "100 Awesome Music Videos", in 2006.
The 2012 music video for "Labrador", the second single from her album Charmer, features a satirical shot-for-shot remake of "Voices Carry" video within the framing device of Mann having been forced to shoot the video after inadvertently signing complete control of the video over to director Tom Scharpling. The video features Jon Wurster as the Wall Street boyfriend, Jon Hamm as Scharpling, and Ted Leo in a cameo.

Murphy's Law......of Combat and other things...

I was surfing Wikipedia looking to the origins of webcomics and I followed a few links and there I was........looking at "Murphy's Law"   I had typed in a webcomic that had a military theme "Murphy's law" by Mark Baker, it talked about a soldier's experience in the green machine and I saw a lot of similarities and some of this was very funny.  This is where I got the following comic that I used on an earlier post.

This article is with apologies to Murphy's Law who is a straight up guy with a very good website.  He is "good People"

Murphy's laws origin

The following article was excerpted from The Desert Wings
March 3, 1978

Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will") was born at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949 at North Base.

It was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981, (a project) designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash.

One day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he'll find it."

The contractor's project manager kept a list of "laws" and added this one, which he called Murphy's Law.

Actually, what he did was take an old law that had been around for years in a more basic form and give it a name.

Shortly afterwards, the Air Force doctor (Dr. John Paul Stapp) who rode a sled on the deceleration track to a stop, pulling 40 Gs, gave a press conference. He said that their good safety record on the project was due to a firm belief in Murphy's Law and in the necessity to try and circumvent it. Aerospace manufacturers picked it up and used it widely in their ads during the next few months, and soon it was being quoted in many news and magazine articles. Murphy's Law was born.

The Northrop project manager, George E. Nichols, had a few laws of his own. Nichols' Fourth Law says, "Avoid any action with an unacceptable outcome."

The doctor, well-known Col. John P. Stapp, had a paradox: Stapp's Ironical Paradox, which says, "The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle."

Nichols is still around. At NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, he's the quality control manager for the Viking project to send an unmanned spacecraft to Mars

1. Friendly fire - isn't.
2. Recoilless rifles - aren't.
3. Suppressive fires - won't.
4. You are not Superman; Marines and fighter pilots take note.
5. A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.
6. If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.
7. Try to look unimportant; the enemy may be low on ammo and not want to waste a bullet on you.
8. If at first you don't succeed, call in an air strike.
9. If you are forward of your position, your artillery will fall short.
10. Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than yourself.
11. Never go to bed with anyone crazier than yourself.
12. Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.
13. If your attack is going really well, it's an ambush.
14. The enemy diversion you're ignoring is their main attack.
15. The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions:
a. When they're ready.
b. When you're not.
16. No OPLAN ever survives initial contact.
17. There is no such thing as a perfect plan.
18. Five second fuses always burn three seconds.
19. There is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.
20. A retreating enemy is probably just falling back and regrouping.
21. The important things are always simple; the simple are always hard.
22. The easy way is always mined.
23. Teamwork is essential; it gives the enemy other people to shoot at.
24. Don't look conspicuous; it draws fire. For this reason, it is not at all uncommon for aircraft carriers to be known as bomb magnets.
25. Never draw fire; it irritates everyone around you.
26. If you are short of everything but the enemy, you are in the combat zone.
27. When you have secured the area, make sure the enemy knows it too.
28. Incoming fire has the right of way.
29. No combat ready unit has ever passed inspection.
30. No inspection ready unit has ever passed combat.
31. If the enemy is within range, so are you.
32. The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.
33. Things which must be shipped together as a set, aren't.
34. Things that must work together, can't be carried to the field that way.
35. Radios will fail as soon as you need fire support.
36. Radar tends to fail at night and in bad weather, and especially during both).
37. Anything you do can get you killed, including nothing.
38. Make it too tough for the enemy to get in, and you won't be able to get out.
39. Tracers work both ways.
40. If you take more than your fair share of objectives, you will get more than your fair share of objectives to take.
41. When both sides are convinced they're about to lose, they're both right.
42. Professional soldiers are predictable; the world is full of dangerous amateurs.
43. Military Intelligence is a contradiction.
44. Fortify your front; you'll get your rear shot up.
45. Weather ain't neutral.
46. If you can't remember, the Claymore is pointed towards you.
47. Air defense motto: shoot 'em down; sort 'em out on the ground.
48. 'Flies high, it dies; low and slow, it'll go'.
49. The Cavalry doesn't always come to the rescue.
50. Napalm is an area support weapon.
51. Mines are equal opportunity weapons.
52. B-52s are the ultimate close support weapon.
53. Sniper's motto: reach out and touch someone.
54. Killing for peace is like screwing for virginity.
55. The one item you need is always in short supply.
56. Interchangeable parts aren't.
57. It's not the one with your name on it; it's the one addressed "to whom it may concern" you've got to think about.
58. When in doubt, empty your magazine.
59. The side with the simplest uniforms wins.
60. Combat will occur on the ground between two adjoining maps.
61. If the Platoon Sergeant can see you, so can the enemy.
62. Never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lie down, never stay awake when you can sleep.
63. The most dangerous thing in the world is a Second Lieutenant with a map and a compass.
64. Exceptions prove the rule, and destroy the battle plan.
65. Everything always works in your HQ, everything always fails in the Colonel's HQ.
66. The enemy never watches until you make a mistake.
67. One enemy soldier is never enough, but two is entirely too many.
68. A clean (and dry) set of BDU's is a magnet for mud and rain.
69. The worse the weather, the more you are required to be out in it.
70. Whenever you have plenty of ammo, you never miss. Whenever you are low on ammo, you can't hit the broad side of a barn.
71. The more a weapon costs, the farther you will have to send it away to be repaired.
72. The complexity of a weapon is inversely proportional to the IQ of the weapon's operator.
73. Field experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
74. No matter which way you have to march, its always uphill.
75. If enough data is collected, a board of inquiry can prove anything.
76. For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism. (in boot camp)
77. Air strikes always overshoot the target, artillery always falls short.
78. When reviewing the radio frequencies that you just wrote down, the most important ones are always illegible.
79. Those who hesitate under fire usually do not end up KIA or WIA.
80. The tough part about being an officer is that the troops don't know what they want, but they know for certain what they don't want.
81. To steal information from a person is called plagiarism. To steal information from the enemy is called gathering intelligence.
82. The weapon that usually jams when you need it the most is the M60.
83. The perfect officer for the job will transfer in the day after that billet is filled by someone else.
84. When you have sufficient supplies & ammo, the enemy takes 2 weeks to attack. When you are low on supplies & ammo the enemy decides to attack that night.
85. The newest and least experienced soldier will usually win the Medal of Honor.
86. A Purple Heart just proves that were you smart enough to think of a plan, stupid enough to try it, and lucky enough to survive.
87. Murphy was a grunt.
88. Beer Math --> 2 beers times 37 men equals 49 cases.
89. Body count Math --> 3 guerrillas plus 1 probable plus 2 pigs equals 37 enemies killed in action.
90. The bursting radius of a hand grenade is always one foot greater than your jumping range.
91. All-weather close air support doesn't work in bad weather.
92. The combat worth of a unit is inversely proportional to the smartness of its outfit and appearance.
93. The crucial round is a dud.
94. Every command which can be misunderstood, will be.
95. There is no such place as a convenient foxhole.
96. Don't ever be the first, don't ever be the last and don't ever volunteer to do anything.
97. If your positions are firmly set and you are prepared to take the enemy assault on, he will bypass you.
98. If your ambush is properly set, the enemy won't walk into it.
99. If your flank march is going well, the enemy expects you to outflank him.
100. Density of fire increases proportionally to the curiousness of the target.
101. Odd objects attract fire - never lurk behind one.
102. The more stupid the leader is, the more important missions he is ordered to carry out.
103. The self-importance of a superior is inversely proportional to his position in the hierarchy (as is his deviousness and mischievousness).
104. There is always a way, and it usually doesn't work.
105. Success occurs when no one is looking, failure occurs when the General is watching.
106. The enemy never monitors your radio frequency until you broadcast on an unsecured channel.
107. Whenever you drop your equipment in a fire-fight, your ammo and grenades always fall the farthest away, and your canteen always lands at your feet.
108. As soon as you are served hot chow in the field, it rains.
109. Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do.
110. The seriousness of a wound (in a fire-fight) is inversely proportional to the distance to any form of cover.
111. Walking point = sniper bait.
112. Your bivouac for the night is the spot where you got tired of marching that day.
113. If only one solution can be found for a field problem, then it is usually a stupid solution.
114. Radios function perfectly until you need fire support.
115. What gets you promoted from one rank gets you killed in the next rank.
116. Odd objects attract fire. You are odd.
117. Your mortar barrage will put exactly one round on the intended target. That round will be a dud.
118. Mine fields are not neutral.
119. The weight of your equipment is proportional to the time you have been carrying it.
120. Things that must be together to work can never be shipped together.
121. If you need an officer in a hurry take a nap.
122. The effective killing radius is greater than the average soldier can throw it.
123. Professionals are predictable, its the amateurs that are dangerous.
124. No matter which way you have to march, its always uphill.
125. The worse the weather, the more you are required to be out in it.
126. The quartermaster has only two sizes, too large and too small. (or "on order")
127. The only time suppressive fire works is when it is used on abandoned positions.
128. When a front line soldier overhears two General Staff officers conferring,
he has fallen back too far.
129. Don't ever be the first, don't ever be the last, and don't ever volunteer to do anything.
130. If at first you don't succeed, then bomb disposal probably isn't for you.
131. Any ship can be a minesweeper . . . . once.
132. Whenever you lose contact with the enemy, look behind you.
133. If you find yourself in front of your platoon they know something you don't.
134. The seriousness of a wound (in a firefight) is inversely proportional to the distance to any form of cover.
135. The more stupid the leader is, the more important missions he is ordered to carry out.
136. When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not your friend.
137  When the enemy is closing, the artillery will always be to long
138  Smart bombs have bad days too.
139  Uncrating and assembly instructions are always inside the crate.
140  If you have a personality conflict with your superior:  he has the personality, you have the conflict.
141  If you enter the CO's Presence with an idea, you will leave his Presence with the CO's idea.
142  If something can go wrong at the worst possible time...It will   (Aguila2011)

Public Service Announcement....

I went on a short vacation to Niagara Falls with the Spousal unit and just came back in town, I will be catching up on my reading and posting a few pics from there.  I saw this and figured it would make a "quickie post " until I can post more regular stuff.

THE FOLLOWING CARTOONS ARE INSPIRED BY THE MOST TRANSPARENT ADMINISTRATION IN HISTORY

This one by Chris Muir of DBD cartoons had the second one

Dammm, I hate being right....

  Well I was riding around doing errands and I was listening to the news today and I hear "Dear Leader" say that any negotiations with the GOP will have to have no stipulations, he wants to have a clean slate budget passed and he also want the debt ceiling raised BEFORE he is willing to talk to the GOP.   Damm, I hate being right, I figured the intransigence was due to the debt ceiling, so the FEDGOV can borrow more money to keep the bennies flowing to the looter class so they can expand it and stay in power.  I talked about it last Friday.  Even the lamestream media is starting to notice the strident tones coming from the White House,  and the total unwillingness of the president to want to talk to congress, he is acting imperial and they are starting to notice that.  Not enough cracks are in the facade to break the total support they have for him.     The affordable care act has started off to a rough start, and many people that actually are trying to use the exchange are discovering that the system is crashing due to many incompatibility issues and plugins that it is using.  I have heard guestimates of 6 months to fix all the problems. 

      That isn't all, they are finding out that all the information that they are entering is freely available to all facets of the government, that there is no expectation of privacy and there have had sites hacked and peoples personal information stolen.   Also people have started getting their adjusted insurance in the mail the new insurance that is in compliance with Obunglercare:   Here is an excerpt:
    

Cindy Vinson and Tom Waschura are big believers in the Affordable Care Act. They vote independent and are proud to say they helped elect and re-elect President Barack Obama.
Yet, like many other Bay Area residents who pay for their own medical insurance, they were floored last week when they opened their bills: Their policies were being replaced with pricier plans that conform to all the requirements of the new health care law.

They voted for Obungler and Obunglercare and now they are getting just what they deserve. Ain't Schadenfreude a bitch

Vinson, of San Jose, will pay $1,800 more a year for an individual policy, while Waschura, of Portola Valley, will cough up almost $10,000 more for insurance for his family of four.

The Messiah said that if people like their policies and their insurance companies...they can keep them....Yeah Right...
…

I was laughing at Boehner — until the mail came today,”
Waschura said, referring to House Speaker John Boehner, who is leading the Republican charge to defund Obamacare.
“I really don’t like the Republican tactics, but at least now I can understand why they are so pissed about this. When you take $10,000 out of my family’s pocket each year, that’s otherwise disposable income or retirement savings that will not be going into our local economy.”

 "Welcome to the Party Pal..."

The Republicans are trying to help you, you clueless idiots. They told you this law would be a disaster, but you believed all the bullshit Obungler, ex-Speaker Nancy "You have to pass it to see what is in it", and Harry the ghoul  were pushing and you voted for this disaster. You voted to screw yourselves.  You voted against your economic interest in the interest of "fairness" and Diversity....and it now bit you in the ass...

“Of course, I want people to have health care,” Vinson said. “I just didn’t realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.”

 You can read more at the Link

     I have been told by several liberals   "Well it is the law of the land...so deal with it."  I replied  "Well so was Dredd Scott and 700,000 Americans died fixing that little problem.   You really want to go there again?"

   Now "Dear Leader" is pushing for a blank check on the debt ceiling, and he is totally expecting the establishment GOP to fold and capitulate like the French did in 1940, and for those that don't understand the reference, France had what many experts considered the most powerful modern armed forces in Europe, but Germany had a new way of fighting and the French were divided up with internal division, also a social rot had permeated the culture and many of the French when the time came to fight for their country, they just rolled over, they were mentally beaten by an inferior force but better tactics and leadership.  Now Obungler wants more money to spend,

         I also hear the same place at the Washington mall that was closed by imperial fiat to the average citizen and WWII vets, somehow is open so a  future democrat voters pro amnesty rally can be held today......The double standards are galling and many people still are clueless what is going one.   I am trying to wrap my head around this and I am having a hard time with it.   

Monday Music..."Mr Roboto" by Styx and other musings

before going with my standard Monday Music...actually published on Monday....for a change....Yay..go me:)  I was listening to the news people on the local radio station and I heard that as part of the partial shutdown of the government, the park rangers( Man they are really getting around...From the WWII memorial, to the Vietnam memorial to Mount Rushmore...and other places.)  They went to people that owned homes that they have long term leases( usually 99 years or something like that) and telling them that due to the government shutdown, they have 72 hours to vacate. even though they own the house, it is on federal land.  Also they had the park services try to shut down Mount Vernon(President Washington's house) that is a private organization, but some of the access roads are on federal property.

This from Boortz:

   
I knew 0bama had a deep resentment toward America when he came here in 1979 to enter Occidental College. Even so, I’m continually amazed at how vindictive, arrogant, dishonest, narcissistic and thuggish this man can be.  Yes … I said thug.  0bama is to the presidency what Jimmy Hoffa was to union leadership.
I could never have guessed that 0bama would so brashly show his disdain for America’s veterans as he has in the past week.  The underlying psychology here is easy to understand if you’ve studied 0bama’s upbringing and past.  He was raised to despise and resent America.  His father and mother both hated this country, as did his grandparents and most of the people who influenced him right through college.  To 0bama, America was a colonialist power that brought oppression to his father’s African homeland.   At Punahou school in Hawaii he was taught that Hawaii was colonized by America … a continuation of the mantra he heard throughout childhood. 
Now 0bama is showing his feelings toward veterans.  After all, they fought to preserve a country that he came here to destroy (just ask some of his Occidental classmates.)  So now he has a chance to show his lack of respect for veterans … and he’s making the most of it.
            Did you hear about Normandy?  More American troops died in one day .. the D-Day landings at Normandy, than in all of the Iraq war.  Those who survived that day are dying at a rate of 600 to 900 veterans a day.  Many of these men want to visit that beach – that invasion site – again, before they die.  0bama actually ordered the beach, the cemetery and the memorial at Normandy closed.  These veterans spent their money to get over to France to visit what they consider to be hallowed ground – and their president, their Commander-in-Chief, had ordered the site closed.  That is vicious behavior … vicious, thuggish behavior.  
            There’s more … more of the pettiness and vindictiveness of our wonderful Dear Ruler:

• Around the country there are people who live in their own private homes which happened to be located on federal lands.  They own these homes on these plots of ground through contractural agreements with the federal government.  0bama has ordered that these people be denied access to their homes during the shutdown.
• On the state highways around the Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota you will find turnouts.  These are places where you can leave the highway and park to get a view of Mount Rushmore.  0bama has ordered the park service to close these turnoffs .. and the orange cones went up.  These are not federal roads .. they’re state roads.  But you can see Mount Rushmore, so these turnoffs had to be closed.  Until the state told them to back off.
• You know what Amber alerts are, don’t you?  You can get alerts over radio, on your cell phone and over the Internet about abducted minor children.  Well …. Not the Internet.  That’s a federally operated website, so it has been shut down. Is it possible that some abducted child will not be found in time?  Yeah .. it’s possible, but then again 0bama has instructed that the shutdown be made to be as painful as possible.  What’s one child when it comes to 0bama’s power and agenda? But Michelle Obama "Move it" website that discusses nutrition in the schools stays open......

"Mr. Roboto" is a song written by Dennis DeYoung of the band Styx, and recorded on the Styx album Kilroy Was Here. It was also released as a 45 RPM single in a 4:44 radio edit (available on "Greatest Hits" released by PolyTel in Canada in 1992), with the song "Snowblind" (from their previous album Paradise Theatre) as the B-side. In Canada, where they were generally more popular than in their native U.S., it went to #1 on the RPM national singles chart,^[1] becoming their third single to top the charts in that country (following "Babe" in 1979-80 and "The Best of Times" in 1981).^{[citation needed]} In the U.S., it reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.^{[citation needed]}
The song's chorus features the line, "Dōmo arigatō, Mr. Roboto", which has become a catchphrase.
The Japanese lyrics at the beginning of the song are as follows:

どうもありがとうミスターロボット (dōmo arigatō misutā Robotto)

また会う日まで (mata au hi made)

どうもありがとうミスターロボット (dōmo arigatō misutā Robotto)

秘密を知りたい (himitsu wo shiritai)

The lyrics translate into English as follows:

Thank you very much, Mr. Robot

Until the day (we) meet again

Thank you very much, Mr. Robot

I want to know your secret

The song tells part of the story of Robert Orin Charles Kilroy (ROCK), in the rock opera Kilroy Was Here. The song is performed by Kilroy (as played by keyboardist Dennis DeYoung), a rock and roll performer who was placed in a futuristic prison for "rock and roll misfits" by the anti-rock-and-roll group the Majority for Musical Morality (MMM) and its founder Dr. Everett Righteous (played by guitarist James Young). The Roboto is a model of robot which does menial jobs in the prison. Kilroy escapes the prison by overpowering a Roboto prison guard and hiding inside its emptied-out metal shell. When Jonathan Chance finally meets Kilroy, at the very end of the song, Kilroy unmasks and says, I'm Kilroy! Kilroy!, ending the song.
The robot-like catchphrase was created with a vocoder. The song heavily features the Oberheim OB-Xa and PPG Wave synthesizers.
Stan Winston designed the Roboto costume and mask, which is displayed prominently on the cover of the album Kilroy Was Here. The track was released as the first single from the album at the last minute instead of "Don't Let It End" at the request of A&M Records.

 The song's video, directed by Brian Gibson, depicts Jonathan Chance (played by guitarist Tommy Shaw) walking in Rock Museum to meet Kilroy and a robot approaches. After this, it morphs into five robots moving and dancing. Shortly thereafter, the robots transform into the members of Styx and including a clean-shaven Dennis DeYoung (he shaved his trademark moustache off at the conclusion of the Paradise Theater tour in 1982 and has remained clean-shaven to this day). The video then alternates between the band playing the song on a stage and scenes from the Kilroy Was Here backdrop film. Then, the members of Styx morph back into the robots and DeYoung confronts the robots, screaming in the ear of one of the robots before collapsing. DeYoung awakens to see he is being experimented on and runs off. The video cuts back to the ending of the first scene and Jonathan Chance climbs on to the stage. Before the robot removes his mask to reveal Kilroy, another shot of the robot with lights on is used to end the clip.

The Direction of the country....

I took my son to "Camp Grandma"and on the way back I had to make a pit stop on I-75 near Calhoun at a Pilot gas station.  Well I saw this on the wall and had to take a picture of it.
                            

   And it was going here....

    I was impressed, somebody took the time to write on a clean wall that is free of graffiti to make a statement,  No It wasn't me...I didn't have a sharpie on me or I would have added to it.   the discontent the average person has is at a high pitch and I believe that it will get worse.  I am hearing that a bunch of veterans are planning on marching on the WWII memorial and the Vietnam memorial around October 13 here is the Linkie.  What I have heard what prompted this besides the shameful way the WWII vets were treated, was the Vietnam Vets told to leave the "Open Air" Vietnam memorial by the Park service.   It will be interesting to see what Obungler will do but I am concerned if he will use this as an excuse for drastic action because of the partial government shutdown and the media will cover him and the cops like they did when Mariam Carey was shot by the Keystone Cops The Capital Police.  Because the DHS views veterans as "extremist" they probably will overreact or am I just got my tinfoil hat on too tight?

The Feds want the little people to feel the pain of the partial shutdown

I have seen stuff on the news where the state park people are putting up barriers to keep people lot of the open air parks, there is normally no barriers, but they are adding them during the shutdown...

That bothers me....These places are "open air" and somehow the government finds the time to "close" them and put barricades up because the petulant boy king is throwing a temper tantrum because he isn't getting his way and he and the democrats wants the " little people" to feel the pain.   Now these places don't have barriers up normally....regular access and all that....but all of a sudden, there are barriers up?   Wait a freaking minute...those clowns in DC work for US   not the other way around.   Now we also have places like "Grand Canyon and Rushmore offered to stay open through state money but the bureaucrats are saying "NO"  they have their orders from "dear Leader" to make the hoi polli feel the pain because their betters in DC want to put the screws to us because they want an open checkbook to spend money we don't have so they can buy votes to stay in power.  They say this is over "Obunglercare"   Obunglercare is a sideshow...Dear Leader wants the debt limit raised.....again, nothing like going from 9 trillion dollars in 2008 to 18 trillion in 2013....nothing like doubling the debt...but who cares...the grandkids will pay it off.....maybe...but it don't matter as long as they stay in power they can keep hopping from turd to turd to keep their benefits and privelages while the rest of us have a decreased standard of living because the dollar is worth less and less.

   

     The Obama administration has stopped white house tours to punish the little people so we cannot see " our house"   but they have all the lobbyist and other democrat donors still have unfettered access to the Obungler white house......And nobody is screaming about this because the lamestream media is covering for that hack and his cronies in the whitehouse....now if that had been an republican whitehouse.....they would have been screaming bloody murder and demanding investigations...but since it is " their guy" they cover for him.   objective news reporters...my ass.  They are totally in the tank for this corrupt administration.
   

Of course, he’s aided and abetted by the LSM which is nothing more than the propaganda wing of the Dimocrat Party. The so called “journalists” are really nothing more than highly paid stenographers who write down and then regurgitate the talking points fed to them by the White House and the Dimocrats in Congress. All you have to do is listen to what the Dimocrat leaders have to say. They use the same words and they all call the Republicans the same names. “Terrorists” “Anarchists” “Hostage takers” “Radicals” “Extremists” (So much for that “new tone” and “civility” we were lectured about after the Giffords shooting. As with all of the other stuff we’re lectured about by our betters, it only applies to Republicans, Libertarians, and the Tea Party.) The members of the LSM no longer report. They now propagandize. And then they have the unmitigated gall to claim they have no liberal bias. Goebbels would be proud. So would Lenin and Stalin.
    

And didja notice that Obeauzeau is willing to negotiate with our enemies, the Iranians, but is not willing to negotiate with Republicans. He and the rest of the Dimocrats are using names for Republicans that apply more to the Iranians and al Qaeda than to Republicans. They’re calling Republicans “terrorists”. In all of my years, I have never seen the Dimocrat Party like this. And they have the unmitigated gall to call conservatives “extremists”?
     Where is the outrage?   What is with  the unmitigated gall of the President...You noticed that he only uses bad words to describe his political opponents...not the muslims that want to kill us, not to anybody else that wants to hurt us....but just his political opponents....Like he only has a spine when he is talking to the GOP..He knows that the LSM will cover for him...whereas the world media has lost its shine for him several years ago and they will report things that we in the states will not get unless we read foreign newspapers not the domestic bird cage liners or fishwrappers we get locally.
    Now I don't know about other people but I am really pissed about this crap, those clowns work FOR US...We are not sheeple to provide wool and the occasional mutton to our betters in D.C and I am wondering how much longer people in the states will get to the point that they are pissed enough to tell the FEDs to screw off.

   

"The Bard of Warriors has arrived " Tom Clancy April 12 1947 to October 1 2013

In Vahalla the Warriors are drinking mead and regaling each other with tales of glory when the door opens and a figure walks in, one of the warriors eyes the newcomer and exclaims "By Oden, the Bard of Warriors has arrived!"  The Vikings immediately make a place at the table and hand the newcomer a horn of mead and all make a toast to the newcomer "Welcome to Vahalla where all warriors live forever!

     Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American author best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science storylines that are set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games which bear his name for licensing and promotional purposes. Seventeen of his novels were best-sellers, with over 100 million copies in print.^[3] His name was also a brand for similar movie scripts written by ghost writers and many series of non-fiction books on military subjects and merged biographies of key leaders.

     I first became a fan of Tom Clancy back in the mid 80's, he wrote 2 books  that I got hold of the first one was "Hunt for Red October", the second one was "Red Storm Rising.  The second one I read while I was patrolling the 1K zone between West Germany and East Germany and Czechoslovakia.  He had the ability to make all his books seem real, it kinda scared the crap out of me, I kept expecting the 8th Guards Army and GSFG to roll over us, we in the Cav were viewed as "Speedbumps" and we were expected to die in place and give NATO a chance to call out the forces to defeat the Russians.    Funny how things have changed....and yet remain the same.  I remember on 9-11 when my wife called me and woke me up, I was on night shift at Ford Motor Company and she called me to tell me that a commercial plane hit the trade center, and my first reaction was " when did you start reading Tom Clancy?"  I didn't believe it until I turned on the TV and saw the second plane hit the tower and I knew that we were attacked and at war.
     I was a continual fan of his books and I always knew that he believed in American exceptional-ism and that we as Americans would prevail in the end.    
     We lost Vince Flynn and now Tom Clancy, The literary world for people on the conservative side is lessened.

      

Testing.....Testing......1.2.3. Testing......

I am seeing if this works from work

SWEET!!!!!

  Looks like I figured to post from work

"Born to be Wild..." Monday Music* and other things.....

I have had an eventful time...Not in a bad way...just busier than a 1 legged man in a butt kicking contest.  I finished my class that I had to take, then I had signed up for a "Basic Rider Course" for my motorcycle license that I wanted to get.  That took all weekend

On Saturday night, I went to a cub scout function despite having little sleep and kept falling asleep so I went home, woke up and went to a second day.

We practiced stops, accelerations, turns, how to do what is a "Press" to go into a faster turn, how to read a curve.  We practiced "S" curves how to do a double "U" turn inside a box, how to properly stop,  We drove all weekend and at the completion I took both the riding test and written test and passed both.
     Then I had work again*dang work anyway* and at work I downloaded "google Chrome" on one of the work computers...I will see if this solves my posting problems.

     As part of my *delayed "monday Music" I decided to go with "Steppenwolf...Born to be wild"

"Born to Be Wild" is a rock song first performed by the band Steppenwolf, written by Mars Bonfire. It is often used in popular culture to denote a biker appearance or attitude. It is sometimes described as the first heavy metal song, and the second verse lyric "heavy metal thunder" marks the first use of this term in rock music (although not as a description of a musical style). However, the claim may be false as bands such as Blue Cheer had recorded songs with a heavier rock sound while "Born to Be Wild" incorporated elements of classic rock music.

"Born to Be Wild" was written by Mars Bonfire (who also wrote several other songs for Steppenwolf) as a ballad. Writer Bonfire was previously a member of the Sparrows, the predecessor band to Steppenwolf, and his brother was Steppenwolf's drummer. Although he initially offered the song to other bands – The Human Expression, for one – "Born to Be Wild" was first recorded in 1967 by Steppenwolf in a sped-up and rearranged version, that the All Music Guide's Hal Horowitz described as "a roaring anthem of turbo-charged riff rock" and "a timeless radio classic as well as a slice of '60s revolt that at once defines Steppenwolf's sound and provided them with their shot at AM immortality."

"Born to Be Wild" was the band's third single off their 1968 debut album Steppenwolf and became their most successful single, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed "Born to Be Wild" at No. 129 on the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. In 2009, it was named the 53rd best hard rock song of all time by VH1.




     The song was initially released in 1968, but it was subsequently included in many compilation albums and soundtracks. The first of these was the soundtrack for the movie Easy Rider, released in 1969. Unlike the album or single version, the song on this soundtrack is accompanied by the sounds of motorcycles as an introduction (another Steppenwolf song from their first album, "The Pusher", was also used in the film). When the movie was in production, "Born to Be Wild" was used simply as a placeholder, since Peter Fonda had wanted Crosby, Stills and Nash to do the movie's soundtrack. Eventually, it became clear that the song was well suited for the movie.

Very Hectic

Sorry about not posting the past few days, it has been very busy and I can't post from work (Dang Internet Explorer).  I will post stuff including my Monday Music on Wednesday....Yeah Wednesday....