Secret Hours

There must be a criminal investigation of the AIG debacle, and it looks as if New York’s top lawman is on the case. The collusion to save this toxic company in order to salvage the rogue financiers who conspired to enrich themselves by impoverishing millions is being revealed as the greatest financial scandal in U.S. history.

“Military women are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq,” said Rep. Jane Harman in response to the news that the number of sexual assault reports in the military last year increased by about 9 percent to 2,923. The Pentagon believes the actual number of assaults is five to 10 times higher, because most go unreported.

AP via Google:

The yearly increase in reports is more likely due to larger numbers of victims being willing to come forward than to an overall increase in sexual violence, Whitley said.

That increase includes a jump in cases from combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, to 165 from 131 the year before.

This article first appeared in Defense Technology International.

The Russian military has been sparing in its use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), primarily because the models in service were designed in the Soviet era and are obsolete. Although local manufacturers are years behind the U.S. and Israel in UAV developments, some indigenous systems are being tested.

Russia's need to get on track with UAV development was made painfully clear during last summer's war with Georgia over South Ossetia. A Georgian air-defense crew shot down an ancient Tupolev Tu-22 bomber that was reportedly on a surveillance flight. Using a manned asset -- and a strategic bomber at that -- for airborne reconnaissance strikes many as the 21st century's version of a cavalry charge.

Most of the work being done is with small UAVs -- Reaper-size drones don't seem to be on the radar yet.

The Luch design bureau of Rybinsk delivered the first Tipchak reconnaissance UAV to the Russian army for testing in 2007. This is a 50-kg. (110-lb.) BLA-05 drone launched by catapult and powered by a 12-hp. piston engine. The aircraft is 2.4 meters (7.8 ft.) long and has a wingspan of 3.4 meters. It carries a combined TV/infrared camera and has an operating range of 70 km. (43 mi.), speed of 200 kph. (124 mph.) and 3-hr. endurance.

The military plans to use Tipchak for surveillance, target detection and to adjust the fire of multiple-launch rocket systems, say representatives of Luch. The company plans to deliver two more Tipchak systems this year, each with three unmanned drones. It has assembled a reserve of 20 UAVs.

A modified drone, the BLA-07, is also being tested. It is smaller, but reportedly has improved aerodynamics, folding wings and higher-resolution cameras.

Russia's border guard service is also in the market for UAVs to monitor the country's frontiers. The Transas company of St. Petersburg conducted demonstration flights with its Dozor-4 UAV for border guards last fall in Dagestan in the North Caucasus. The vehicle is a further development of the Dozor unmanned family. Its high-wing airframe has a wingspan of 4.8 meters and takeoff weight of 90 kg. The Dozor-4 is powered by a 19.2-hp. piston engine with pusher propeller and has 8-hr. endurance. Range is 1,200 km.

During the five-day trials at the Dzhepel frontier post in the mountainous region on the border with Azerbaijan, the Dozor-4 flew several sorties, taking pictures of the border and surrounding areas. Gennady Trubnikov, chief designer of the UAV, says the Dozor-4 can position itself with an accuracy of 15 meters. “We flew right above the border.”

The UAV has a static ceiling of 3,000 meters, but Trubnikov says that in Dagestan engineers were only flying the drone to 2,540 meters because of strong winds from the mountains. Another challenge was the unprepared field in use for takeoffs and landings.

A hawkish speech by President Dmitry Medvedev may signal a massive overhaul and escalation of the Russian military, as fears of a growing threat posed by NATO has pushed Russian officials to plan a modernization of the country’s conventional and nuclear forces by 2011.

The Guardian:

Russia plans to boost both conventional armed forces and nuclear forces to counter a growing threat from Nato, President Dmitry Medvedev said [Tuesday], raising the spectre of a military confrontation between Moscow and the west.

In a hawkish speech to Russia’s top generals, Medvedev said Russia intended to upgrade the army and navy from 2011. Strategic nuclear forces would also be overhauled in an effort to guarantee the country’s security.

Modernisation was necessary because of the danger posed by the transatlantic military alliance. “Attempts to expand the military infrastructure of Nato near the borders of our country are continuing,” Medvedev said. “The primary task is to increase the combat readiness of our forces. They must be able to [fulfill] all the necessary tasks to ensure Russia’s security.”

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It is 6 p.m. and the museum is closing down for the night. The building's alarm system is switched on and the security guard does his rounds. A novel motion sensor developed by the Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Potsdam-Golm and for Computer Architecture and Software Technology FIRST in Berlin could provide even more security in future, enabling window panes and glass doors to detect movements thanks to a special coating. If anything changes in front of the pane, or someone sneaks up to it, an alarm signal is sent to the security guard.

In Canada, campaign spending limits for candidates during a federal election are stipulated by the Canada Elections Act. A study recently published in the Canadian Journal of Economics uses these spending limits to evaluate the impact of candidate spending on voting outcomes. Results show that higher spending by candidates is found to lead to better chance of the candidate winning the election, and that spending limits are good for democracy.

Back on its ACORN hobby horse, Fox News attacks the community organizing group and its possible role as a national partner with the Census Bureau to recruit more than one million temporary workers to go knock on doors for the upcoming census.

Fox stresses ACORN has "a history of voter fraud charges." Actually, that's how the headline is worded. In the actual online article, Fox News insists ACORN has a "history of voter fraud." (The pesky ref to "charges" gets dropped.) But does ACORN have a history of voter fraud? An ACORN rep tells Fox the organization has never been convicted of any crime, and the Fox article doesn't produce any evidence to the contrary. 

It's true Republicans, amplified by Fox News, aired endless unproven charges against the group last fall and painted the understaffed outfit as an all-powerful cabal. But there's no proof ACORN's done anything wrong. But now Fox News claims that because unproven charges have been waged in the past (amplified by Fox News), that the group is suspect.

Using rigorous computer calculations, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Institution of Washington have established evidence that supercooled silicon experiences a liquid-liquid phase transition, where at a certain temperature two different states of liquid silicon exist. The two states each have unique properties that could be used to develop new silicon-based materials. Furthermore, the methods developed can be applied to gain a better understanding of other materials.

The next time an overnight snow begins to fall, take two bricks and place them side by side a few inches apart in your yard.

In the morning, the bricks will be covered with snow and barely discernible. The snowflakes will have filled every vacant space between and around the bricks.

What you will see, says Ivan Biaggio, resembles a phenomenon that, when it occurs at the smallest of scales on an integrated optical circuit, could hasten the day when the Internet works at superfast speeds.

Steve Benen notes that despite the Right's whining about the fact that a few ex-reporters have gone to work for the Obama administration, as though this proves their theories about the "liberal media," there have been quite a few Republican operatives signed on by major news organizations recently:

And yet, for those keeping score at home, the number of "loyal Bushies" getting hired by major news outlets keeps going up. I know of at least eight prominent examples: Michael Gerson (Washington Post), Sara Taylor (MSNBC), Tony Snow (CNN), Frances Fragos Townsend (CNN), Nicole Wallace (CBS News), Dan Bartlett (CBS News), Jeff Ballabon (CBS News), and, of course, Karl Rove (Fox News, Newsweek, and Wall Street Journal).

If there's a "revolving door" between government service and the media, there are quite a few Republicans taking a spin.

Benen's post was prompted by CNBC's announcement that it has signed former Bush administration spokesman Tony Fratto as a contributor.  Think about that for a moment: CNBC, under fire for missing the financial collapse that was occuring right under its nose, turned to a former Bush administration aide for help.  Interesting approach.

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