United Technologies, Canada-based Pratt and Whitney and US-based Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation entered guilty pleas to criminal charges and agreed to pay more than $75 million to the government in a settlement, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Pratt and Whitney admitted to selling to China military software that is designed to test and control the company's helicopter engines, it said. The technology helped China develop a new combat helicopter, the Z-10.
Pratt and Whitney pleaded guilty to violating the arms export control act while United Technologies and Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation admitted to making false statements to US authorities.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/29/2012 11:27 ||
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#2
Ike's admonishment regarding the "military industrial complex" was certainly correct. I doubt he could have imagined a Chinese Communist connection however.
#3
Decertify them from bidding on US defense contracts. Do that once and all the other defense contractors will get the message.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2012 16:50 Comments ||
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#4
I seem to remember a few years back that some company of ours was working with the Chinese on a rocket and it failed. This company sent them a huge report on everything they did wrong because we didn't like being blamed for the failure. Boy, we sure showed them.
#2
There was another fatality in 1948 when a DC-4 crashed into 16,000 high Mt. Sanford, east of Glenallen. Flying at night at 11,000 feet visual, and ran into the mountain. Not good.
Northwest flight 4422 was a non-scheduled charter flight en route from Shanghai-Lunghwa Airport to La Guardia Field. An intermediate stop was made at Anchorage. Take-off from Anchorage was accomplished at 20:12 and the DC-4 climbed to the cruising altitude of 11,000 feet. The last position report was at 21:03 when the flight reported being over the Gulkana radio range station. At that point the airway deflects to the north, its course being 23 degrees, to provide a safe lateral distance from Mt. Sanford which has an elevation of 16,208 feet. The DC-4 continued off the airway and flew into Mount Sanford. The wreckage slid down for about 3000 feet before coming to rest. The wreckage was spotted the day after the accident, but it took until July 24, 1999 before someone was able to reach the crash site.
PROBABLE CAUSE: "The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the pilot's failure to see Mt. Sanford, which was probably obscured by clouds or the aurora borealis or both while flying a course off the airway."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/29/2012 17:49 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded, scientists said Wednesday, in a finding that could debunk one of the most commonly-held images of the extinct giants. When I was a child dinosaurs were cold-blooded creatures akin to lizards. The brachiosaur was reputed to have had a brain so tiny it needed a spare in its tailbone to keep its back end synchronized with its front end. At some point some genius noticed that no dinosaur had hips built like lizards'. Somebody else -- or maybe even the same guy -- noticed that the primary differences between an allosaur and a chicken were size and teeth. Evidence has even been found that at least some dinosaurs had feathers. Now, even a fool like me knows that chickens are warm-blooded. Therefore it's pretty logical that all dinosaurs except for exceptions like the ankylosaur (which had a lizard's hips and shoulders) were warm-blooded.
Researchers in Spain and Norway reported in the journal Nature they had found tree-like growth rings on the bones of mammals, a feature that until now was thought to be limited to cold-blooded creatures ... and dinosaurs. They also found evidence that dinosaurs probably had a high metabolic rate to allow fast growth -- another indicator of warm-bloodedness. When I look around the Wonderful World of Nature there are a number of things that I notice without half trying, which, since scientists don't seem to have noticed the same thing makes me think that either I'm smarter than I think I am or scientists are dumber. F'instance, literal herds of duckbilled dinosaurs used to roam western North America, though I think they called it Gondwanaland or something like that back them. (I forget -- it was a long time ago. I was still in junior high...) Adults ranged in size between 10 and 40 feet long. Herbivores that size would consume quite a few bales of hay in a single day. An African elephant, which is not nearly as large as a 40-foot dinosaur, eats about 450 kilograms of vegetation per day. The climate back in those days must have been pretty lush to support bison-sized herds of the critters.
"Our results strongly suggest that dinosaurs were warm-blooded," lead author Meike Koehler of Spain's Institut Catala de Paleontologia told Agence La Belle France Presse. Another thing I've noticed is body conformation. The allosaurs and Tyrannisaurus Rex and similar creatures were bipedal, which is pretty rare in nature. And they had eentsy-weentsy forelegs which they presumably used to hold down duckbilled dinosaurs and brontosaurs and such while ripping their throats out. But the only creatures still around with approximately the same body conformation as the velociraptors are kangaroos and wallabies and such. I'm much too old and fat and dignified to giggle, but the thought of a tyrannisaur hopping across the plains to fall upon Donald Duckbill occasionally has me in stitches.
If so, the findings should prompt a rethink about reptiles, she said. I'm not too sure why we should rethink anything about reptiles since dinosaurs were chickens, only bigger and with teeth...
Modern-day reptiles are cold-blooded, meaning they cannot control their body temperatures through their own metabolic system -- relying instead on external means such as basking in the sun. Yeah, and some of them had walnut-sized brains at each end...
While the dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded, their other characteristics kept them squarely in the reptile camp, said Koehler. I saw Jurassic Park, so I know better. If they didn't have lizard hips they weren't lizards. Quod erat, as they say, demonstrandum...
Palaeontologists have long noted the ring-like markings on the bones of cold-blooded creatures and dinosaurs, and taken them to indicate pauses in growth, perhaps due to cold periods or lack of food. The bones of warm-blooded animals such as birds and mammals had never been properly assessed to see if they, too, exhibit the lines. Koehler and her team found the rings in all 41 warm-blooded animal species they studied, including antelopes, deer and giraffes. The finding "eliminates the strongest argument that does exist for cold-bloodedness" in dinosaurs, she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
They have found in oxygen trapped in amber of that time to be around 38%. So I have always thought that increased size would be the result. Ram charged so to speak. I also never believed we were using fossil fuels. That idea is getting more attention these days. Fred, I enjoyed your meanderings.
#3
The bones of warm-blooded animals such as birds and mammals had never been properly assessed to see if they, too, exhibit the lines.
Yeah right, nobody studied the bones of mamals. Not even those of homo sapiens. BTW, Institut Català de Paleontologia: for dcades cataaln independentist hacve tried to gain recognition for Catalonia through any means. That is a asecond reason for believing the study is a fraud.
Also: the warm-blooded hypothesis has been around for at least half a century with differnt arguments than those of the study.
#4
The climate back in those days must have been pretty lush to support bison-sized herds of the critters.
Ah, yes, but 'the science is settled'. What is apparently settled is that at one time the Earth was in an optimal state and that everything else before or since then has been an anomaly.
As Dale pointed out in the first post, no one really knows the composition of the atmosphere at times beyond our own existence. It's both 'assumed' or speculated.
#5
I think the determining datum is predator/prey ratio. Slow, cold-blooded metabolisms require eating maybe every couple of weeks, or a month. See crocodiles, for example. So you can have a high predator number to prey animals.
With warm-blooded, there are many, many fewer predators because they have to eat so often that a given prey population will support fewer predators.
So I guess we could--or somebody could--count.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
06/29/2012 8:38 Comments ||
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I thought the consensus in the scientific community shifted to warm blooded dinosaurs sometime around Jurassic Park. Then the feather idea came around by Jurassic Park III.
#7
P2k, the paleo-chemistry field is pretty interesting (at least to a nerdy geek [or is it geeky nerd?] like me). The composition of rock formations are checked for content and it's known that certain compounds only form under certain conditions. So, if something is found in a formation of a certain age, then the conditions, such as wetness or amount of oxygen or ... you get the picture, can be determined. So, not everything is as assumed as it used to be.
Clear as mud?
#8
I thought the big debate was about if T-Rex was a hunter or if he just strolled up and scared the hunters away from a fresh kill that looked tasty. In that scenerio little-bitty arms wouldn' be a handicap while in hunting they could be a problem.
I thought the other big debate was who put the wrong skull on top of apatasaurus and caused generations of kids to misname him brontasaurus and made archialogists look a bit wonkers in the process.
#11
My brilliant reply to this comment got eaten by a tyrannosaur. Short version:
This has been speculated since the 1970s, and in 1986 Robert Bakker wrote the popular Dinosaur Heresies discussing it.
There were, indeed, many dinosaurs with lizards' hips, the Saurischians. These include your upright meat-eating types.
Then there were the Ornithischians, the bird-hipped dinosaurs, which included some upright plant-eating types (like Donald Duckbill), plus (among others) the ankylosaurs.
Actual birds did not evolve from the Ornithischians, but from the Saurischians, which is very perverse of them.
#13
The goofy guy with the beard and the straw hat from Green Acres, the palentologist peer of Bakker, did some research on dinosaur bones and they found structures in the bones which are only present if the animal is warm blooded.
He, the goofy guy in the hat, says he had done some biometric calculations on a T-Rex (pretty impressive for a goofy guy with a funny straw hat, that a T-Rex could run at about 25-35 mph, ergo to him at least that sort of contradicted the cold blooded torpid model of dinosaurs. So he researched further. To him at least, there is enough "anecdotal and second hand evidence" that dinosaurs should have been warm blooded.
BTW as for settled science, the intellectual fascists that are the Clovis First crowd spent fifty years and zillions of dollars of research to preserve their paradigm, not to mention all the careers they ruined. Funny thing for the Clovis First crowd, DNA proved the Siberian land bridge migration was only one of three separate migrations to the new world, the others being the mid pacific migration and the south pacific migration. Plus, the Clovis spear head, that beautiful piece of artistry, has no comparisons in Siberia. Seems the only place in the world that had that type of spear head making technique was in Central France. Now DNA suggests the Clovis culture is later and came from Europe migrating by boat along the Second Ice Age polar cap extending south into the Mid Atlantic.
Too bad academics when they ostracize and demonize people that don't march to the paradigm, don't apologize when an avalanche of evidence suggests the paradigm is full of crap. Scientists tut tut over how the Church treated Galileo and they act the same way now.
BTW, I think Brachiosaurs are neat creatures and would never say anything bad about one.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/29/2012 10:48 Comments ||
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#14
Ah... but early dino-era birds found the huge bugs tasty and that why we don't have giant bugs today... except in government.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/29/2012 10:53 Comments ||
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#17
Anyone have an opinion on Bakkers guess the Brachiosaurus might have had a trunk (nostral holes on top of the skull similar to elephants). I like how he thinks out of the box but this combined with feathers on some of the meat eaters are crushing my childhood.
The idea that a T-Rex ran around looking like some kind of crazed parakeet is disturbing.
I spent most of my childhood reading everything I could find about dinosaurs. I find a lot of the new research refreshing and welcome, however brachiosaurs with trunks and Allosaurs with feathers does give me pause.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/29/2012 15:40 Comments ||
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#19
does a dinosaur have lips?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2012 16:35 Comments ||
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#20
Scientists tut tut over how the Church treated Galileo and they act the same way now.
Watched it burn while she went out to protect Estes Park. Even with yesterday's political news, hope springs eternal with young folks (she's 18) like this.
Rookie firefighter Emily Franklin battled her first blaze this week and among the casualties was her own house.
The fire, one of several wildfires plaguing Colorado, turned her childhood home into cinders and reduced her car to a metal skeleton in the driveway.
"This is my first fire and it was my own home," Franklin, 18, told ABC News."Great way to kick off a career."
Franklin actually watched her own house going up in smoke while working with her colleagues to help save the town from the fire.
Posted by: BA ||
06/29/2012 12:05 ||
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If helicopters from the High Park fire had not been diverted Estes Park could easily have turned into a Co. Springs scenario. When Rocky Mountain National Park catches on fire it will be the ultimate conflagration with 70% beetle kill and impossible terrain.
#2
bman, 70% beetle kill? It's been 13 years or so since I've been in that area. Maybe a "good" fire would help the beetle situation (not that I'm wishing any of these spread uncontrollably)????
Posted by: BA ||
06/29/2012 14:47 Comments ||
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#3
Only spruce fir and aspen left alive in most of the park. I suppose nature's best would be to have it burn and get the cycle going, but I would surely hate too lose my casita at this stage of my life.
Water and Energy minister says Israel will overcome its water shortage over next decade; says 'by end of decade the water we'll all drink will be desalinated'
Neatly taking Israel out of the water wars that have been predicted for the region and the drier areas of the world on the back of rising populations.
Water and Energy Minister Uzi Landau said Tuesday that the State of Israel will get through its water crisis in the upclong decade.
Speaking at the third annual convention for green economy, Landau said "water is an expensive commodity in our area, which is constantly at a state of a political-economic earthquake."
The minister said that Israel will soon get through the crisis, noting that the world's largest desalination facilities are being used by Israel, producing 300 million cubic meter of water per year.
"In two years, the State of Israel will produce 600 million cubic meters of water, while Israel uses some 1.2 billion cubic meters per year.
"By the end of the decade, desalinated water will flow from the western Mediterranean Sea to almost every house in Israel. By the end of the decade the water we'll all drink will be desalinated. We have yet to emerge from the water crisis, but we are on our way," Landau said.
Commenting on the treatment of waste water, the minister stressed that Israel is devoting resources to deal with the issue and has managed to convince the Paleostinians to treat their sewage.
"Donor states are collaborating on projects related to water purification and preventing contamination of underground water that is within the territory of the Paleostinian Authority. I hope these will yield results soon," Landau said.
Otherwise we'll get more stories of brown ponds overflowing their banks to swamp nearby Palestinian villages.
#1
Better have an undisclosed backup encryption system ready in case we actually go to war with someone who knows what they are doing, or is friends with someone who knows what they are doing.
Maybe a backup GPS on the opposite wingtup that can double-check the main GPS would be nice. One that cannot be spoofed. Or would 0.001mg be too heavy to add to the system without messing up its balance or some other goat-dip reason similar to why they can't include some sort of self-destruct/brain-ejection system in case of defection.
#4
I'm not convinced. Apparently this doesn't take any super intellect and GPS spoofing devices are available on the market mostly used for spoofing GPS on mobile phones to show a location different from reality.
"It's easy to spoof an unencrypted drone. Anybody technically skilled could do this - it would cost them some £700 for the equipment and that's it," he told BBC News."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded, scientists said Wednesday, in a finding that could debunk one of the most commonly-held images of the extinct giants.
