July 14, 2008

This technology is a long way from consumer availability, but it is extremely cool…

Official Google Blog: No cameras. No lights. Just data.
The song is called “House of Cards,” from Radiohead’s recent “In Rainbows” album. In this new video, there were no cameras on set. Instead, two scanning technologies were used to capture 3D images. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produced structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne LIDAR system that uses multiple lasers was used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In the video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.

A brand new launch technology for CVN-78 Gerald Ford.

Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) is a system under development by the United States Navy to launch aircraft from carriers using a linear motor drive instead of steam pistons, used in conventional aircraft catapults. This technology has the advantage of gradually increasing the aircraft’s speed, thus reducing the stress the plane’s airframe has to support. The EMALS is currently being developed for the U.S. Navy’s newest Ford class aircraft carriers. It was also being considered for the Royal Navy’s new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers (CVF), however the Royal Navy opted for a Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing (VSTOL) configuration.

Op-Ed Columnist - Gail Collins - Obama’s Flip-Flopping - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

But if you look at the political fights he’s picked throughout his political career, the main theme is not any ideology. It’s that he hates stupidity. “I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war,” he said in 2002 in his big speech against the invasion of Iraq. He did not, you will notice, say he was against unilateral military action or pre-emptive attacks or nation-building. He was antidumb.

Very shrewd of Gail Collins. This is one nuance I didn’t pick up in my Obama book. I think she’s absolutely right.

ARMED FORCES JOURNAL - Think small - July 2008

The U.S. Navy already has a fleet of thousands of small surface combatants that can carry surface to surface missiles or antisubmarine weapons. These small surface combatants are fast, flexible, and all-weather-capable. They are called aircraft.

The Navy needs a credible force of multipurpose corvettes plus a modest number of missile combat craft to effectively bridge the existing gap in its surface warfare capabilities in the littoral waters. As many as 32 multipurpose corvettes organized in eight squadrons of four ships each should be acquired. They should be forward-deployed in similar manner as are surface MCM ships. In addition, a force of perhaps 12 missile combat craft could be deployed within a striking distance of selected choke points. The most critical deployment areas are the Persian Gulf/Strait of Hormuz, Horn of Africa/Bab-el Mandeb Strait, the Strait of Malacca and the Caribbean.

Treasury Acts to Save Mortgage Giants - NYTimes.com

Those bail-out Republicans, at it again.

WASHINGTON — Alarmed by the sharply eroding confidence in the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies, the Bush administration on Sunday asked Congress to approve a sweeping rescue package that would give officials the power to inject billions of federal dollars into the beleaguered companies through investments and loans.