[War Zone] A very unique USAF surveillance aircraft has been flying highly defined circles over Seattle and its various suburbs for nine days now. Nobody at the DoD seems to know who the aircraft belongs to or what exactly it is doing flying so many missions over the Seattle area. But based on its visibly exotic configuration, and information collected by open source flight tracking websites, we can get a good idea of its capabilities and guess as to what it’s up to.
The aircraft, which goes by the callsign "SPUD21" and wears a nondescript flat gray paint job with the only visible markings being a USAF serial on its tail, is a CASA CN-235-300 transport aircraft that has been extensively modified for the surveillance mission. You can see more pictures of the aircraft here.
#6
Probably a surprise to no one, but I checked a couple of aviation serial number links (civilian and military) and 66402 does not appear to be listed.
From the link: CN-235-300 CASA Modification of 200/220 series, with the Honeywell International Corp. avionics suite. Other features include improved pressurization and provision for optional twin-nosewheel installation.
#12
Seafair used to be big thing in Seattle when I was growing up. But then they got rid of some of the more un-PC aspects like the SeaPirates. I remember the SeaPirates raiding Alki beach and making off with some of the fair ladies there. And the hydroplane races themselves have become far too 'corporate-professional'.
[HOTAIR] A new Harris Poll has revealed that Americans are growing pretty g***** tired of all this f****** cursing, at least those paying a nice chunk of change to be entertained in a movie theater. Yeah. I hate that f*****g s**t.
Scriptwriters typically intend bad words to emphasize a character’s emotional intensity, as do lazy speakers in private conversations. But those words have really become so common they strike many as mere verbal crutches for bad actors and a sign of their weak f****** vocabularies. It p****s me off in movies, and it p****s me off when I hear it in public. It's nothing but s****y behavior.
The most offensive swear words, the Hollywood Reporter reports, are taking the name of Jesus Christ in vain. A third of respondents said they’d completely avoid a movie if they knew that was in there. A close second was g****** with f*** right behind. That's because those dumb s**********s weren't raised right.
It’s no f****** surprise that Republicans are more repulsed by swearing than are Democrats; 45% of them dislike the f-word in movies against only 25% of D***. More women (37%) are bothered by that than men (26%). Being more conservative generally, Publicans tend to have better manners than Sinners. It's just another reason for Pharisees and Sadducees to dislike them.
Younger people seem less bothered by cinematic cursing than seniors. In fact, more than half of those over 72 would skip a film with f*** and g****** in it. I said, MORE THAN HALF OF THOSE OVER 72 WOULD SKIP A MOVIE WITH F*** OR G****** IN IT. I guess if you've grown up hearing Mom and Dad or Step-parent casually saying f**k and s**t you're used to it so you don't give a d**n when you hear it outside the home.
Evangelicals appear the most sensitive to movie cursing. Seventy-four percent would not pay to see a movie using f*** while 90% would avoid a film using Jesus Christ in vain. Evangelicals were also bothered by s***, d**n, h***, p*** and c**p. One of my personal least favorites is c**p, which is a synonym for s**t.
The poll was commissioned by filmmaker Spencer Folmar, director of “Generational Sins.” Folmar said the data helped him better understand the audience, adding, “We may create an alternate version for those who want to enjoy the story without all the language that comes naturally to our characters.” I watched a John Wayne movie -- McClintock -- last night. Nary a "d**n" to be heard. Lumpenintellectuals would have come down with the vapors when Maureen O'Hara got spanked.
That could create one version of “Generational Sins” with a PG-13 rating and another rated NFW (No F****** Way).
Since the inauguration, leading Democratic politicians have gone all in for strong language to show the intensity of their feelings. Congratulations on choosing yet another way to drive away former Democratic voters, guys -- this is how you get more Trump.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Valid point.
Hiku
I cannot point to anything.
Please forgive my tresspass
upon you
for my Vulgarity,
#4
Hollyweird thinks it's intellectually chic to curse and show live sex shows on the silver screen? Hollywood has become a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.
#5
Hollywood has no ideas and so just turn out cap. I don't mind cursing, as I do it a lot myself, but when they just use it to replace dialog and acting it is very boring and kills the movie.
#7
Check out the old movies on TV sometime. Recently I watched Them!, Dial M for Murder and Some Like it Hot. Can't remember a single curse word in any of them. But they were highly entertaining.
I think it was on TCM. No advertisements either. Some of the cable movie channels show good movies but interrupt them every ten minutes with five minutes of advertising. Who do they think is watching all those advertisements? I can't.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/05/2017 12:10 Comments ||
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#8
Congratulations on choosing yet another way to drive away former Democratic voters, guys -- this is how you get more Trump.
Shhhhhh!!!! Don't tell them!
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/05/2017 12:14 Comments ||
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#9
Yes. After at least 40 years of overuse, "f---" and "s---" are about as shocking as "the" and "and." But considerably more tiresome.
And, yes, I didn't spell them out because I was raised in the 1940-50s.
Posted by: Tom ||
08/05/2017 16:09 Comments ||
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#10
I have fracking SciFi gorram Tourrette's, nerf herder!
[Al Jazeera] Campaigning has ended in Mauritania, a day before voters head to the polls to decide on controversial constitutional reforms.
The referendum, called for by President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz, seeks to abolish the senate and change the country's flag, among other changes.
Aziz contends that the changes are needed to make the government stronger, but opposition parties argue that if implemented, the changes will give the president sweeping powers and the government will slide towards dictatorship.
"When a leader violates the contract he has with the people and he wants to stay against the will of the people, this opens the door for more disturbance," Mohammed Jamil Mansour, president of the coalition forum, told Al Jazeera's Rob Matheson.
The opposition fears that if the senate is disbanded, the president will try to remain in control for a third five-year term, which he cannot do under the current constitution.
"While he thinks of another term in office, there's a risk of disturbance," Mansour said.
But Aziz has said that extending his rule is not why he called for the referendum.
"Lots of lies have been told to you," he said at a rally of pro-reform supporters.
"You have been told that the president is doing this to stay in power for third team. All of this is lies. It's lies."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2017 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Rwandan President Paul Kagame looked set for a landslide victory as election results trickling in showed the incumbent with an average 98 percent of the vote in districts counted.
The electoral commission released 40 percent of results late on Friday, in which Kagame led his two little-known opponents with a whopping 99.38 percent.
The 59-year-old is expected to easily win a third seven-year term at the helm of the east African nation which he has ruled with an iron fist since the end of the 1994 genocide.
Voting closed at 13:00 GMT on Friday, but many Rwandans who had queued up before the deadline were also allowed to cast their ballots, Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb, reporting from Kigali, said.
Kagame has wielded wide-ranging powers since the end of the genocide and became president in 2000.
About seven million people were registered to vote in the polls to pick a president who will lead the country for the next seven years.
According to the Rwanda Electoral Commission, more than 80 percent of registered voters cast their ballots.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2017 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] More than 250 people, including 62 children, were killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... from mid-March to mid-June, UN human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... Sherlocks said in a new report
The High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) based the report, released on Friday, on interviews in June of 96 refugees who fled Congo's Kasai provinces into neighbouring Angola.
At least 17 cases were of mutilations and other injuries, nine victims of abductions, four victims of rape and one victim of arbitrary arrest.
The OHCHR also received reports of incidents of widespread looting and destruction or burning of property and parts of villages.
Based on accounts from people who fled between March and June, the report counted 251 killings, attributing 150 of them to the Bana Mura and another 79 to the Kamwina Nsapu.
Government forces were blamed for another 22.
"The Bana Mura militia were responsible for 171 victims [150 killed], the Kamuina Nsapu militia for 86 victims [79 killed] and FARDC soldiers for 25 victims [22 killed]," the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2017 00:00 ||
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[NYT] A propaganda video intended to show Turkmenistan’s president as a strong leader who knows his weapons instead became the butt of a global joke.
When the repressive regime exalted its president this week with footage portraying him as a military man of action, an exiled opposition publication created a new video by splicing in clips of Arnold Schwarzenegger suiting up in the 1985 action movie "Commando."
The publication’s parody video struck a nerve online, drawing widespread attention to the president, a former dentist named Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov (pronounced gur-BAHN-goo-lee bair-dee-mukh-ha-MAY-doff).
The official video showed Mr. Berdymukhammedov firing a rifle, throwing knives and calling in an airstrike. "The head of the government demonstrated his precise aim, itself a testament to his high level of military training," the government explained in a statement.
It said he also "demonstrated his mastery of target shooting using a pistol."
[Guardian] National Intelligence Service says it mobilised cyberwarfare experts to ensure Park Geun-hye beat rival and now president Moon Jae-in.
South Korea’s spy agency has admitted it conducted an illicit campaign to influence the country’s 2012 presidential election, mobilising teams of experts in psychological warfare to ensure that the conservative candidate, Park Geun-hye, beat her liberal rival.
An internal investigation by the powerful National Intelligence Service also revealed attempts by its former director and other senior officials to influence voters during parliamentary elections under Park’s predecessor, the hardline rightwinger Lee Myung-bak.
Claims, now confirmed by the service, that it was behind an aggressive online campaign to sway voters is certain to add to public anger towards South Korea’s political system.
#1
Genie in a bottle. Can't resist using it. There or here. Why do you think the Founding Fathers thought the 4th Amendment was so important as to incorporate it shortly after the the ratification of the Constitution? /rhet question.
[American Thinker] As the tectonic plates shift in the global auto industry, jobs are being added under President Trump. He was elected promising to reverse the deindustrialization of America, and the announcement today from Toyota and Mazda [i] that they are jointly building a $1.6-billion assembly plant at an American site to be determined shows that he is delivering.
Jonathan Soble writes from Tokyo for the New York Times:
Toyota said on Friday that it was taking a 5 percent stake in Mazda, another Japanese automaker, adding that the companies would jointly build a new assembly plant in the United States and pool resources on new technologies.The factory's location has not been decided, but Toyota and Mazda said they hoped the first vehicles would roll off its production lines in 2021. The plant is expected to cost $1.6 billion and will employ about 4,000 workers, they said.
#2
Japanese figured out a long time ago how to get around quotas and tariffs was to base in the Big Country. They had their big scare after the Arab oil embargo when Americans discovered fuel efficient, quality made, no 3 foot long page of 'extras', cars sending the UAW and Michigan congresscritters into panic to shut the imports down.
They shut down their product development groups in northern Kentucky as well, Skidmark. That's how trailing daughter #2 and her husband ended up in Dallas less than six months after she started working for the company. It's still her dream job, though, and I'm sure it was good for them to be far away from all the parents.
[DAWN] Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Friday called for the formation of a special committee to investigate the allegations of harassment levelled against Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems... by MNA Ayesha Gulalai.
The premier was addressing the National Assembly shortly after his cabinet took oath at a ceremony at the Presidency. Following the ceremony, Abbasi presided over a meeting of the newly formed cabinet.
Abbasi, in his address to politicians, called for the formation of a special committee to probe the allegations against Khan in-camera and suggested that the committee present a report before the House after its investigation so that the "matter can be closed". The assembly passed the motion and directed the committee to submit its report within a month.
He assured both the accused and the accuser they would be respected, adding that the PTI chief had the "right to defend himself".
Abbasi also promised round-the-clock protection for MNA Gulalai after she claimed on television that she was scared for her life.
While announcing her departure from PTI earlier this week, Gulalai had accused Khan and his "gang" of having an "immoral character".
The MNA from Wazoo alleged that Khan "would forward inappropriate and explicit text messages to party women", claiming that she received the first such message in 2013.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2017 00:00 ||
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h/t Instapundit
Are smartphones destroying our kids? That’s the premise of an extensive article in September’s The Atlantic
The author, Jean Twenge, has been researching generational differences for 25 years, starting when she was a 22-year-old doctoral student in psychology. In this article she describes how the use of smartphones is so prevalent among the teen population, the generation she calls iGens, and how profound of an effect smartphones are having on social behavior, friendships, sex and more.
Her premise, based on extensive research findings, is that this generation is more comfortable online than out partying, and while physically safer, they're on the brink of a mental health crisis.
She found that the iGens hang out much less with their friends most days, with the frequency dropping by more than 40 percent from 2000 to 2015. Teens are dating less, with just 56 percent of high school seniors going out on dates in 2015, down from 85 percent for the previous generations. And they have more leisure time but waste it, spending more time in their room alone, on their phones, often distressed.
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.
[Guardian] National Intelligence Service says it mobilised cyberwarfare experts to ensure Park Geun-hye beat rival and now president Moon Jae-in.
Wazoo
