Author Archive: Stephen Green
December 15, 2017
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW OF THE LAST JEDI: Star Wars Thrill Ride Takes the Force in an Exciting New Direction.
FASTER? PLEASE! Super-fast aircraft with Mach 2.2 speed in the making: Japan Airlines collaborates with Boom.
In what would speed up Boom Technology’s dream of making supersonic passenger jet, Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced its strategic partnership with the company. The new-generation superfast aircraft will travel at the speed of Mach 2.2 (1,451 mph / 2,335 km/h), which is more than double the speed of the average airliner (Mach 0.85).
Japan Airlines has agreed to invest $10 million in Boom besides helping to refine the aircraft design and has the option to purchase up to 20 Boom aircraft through a pre-order arrangement.
“We are very proud to be working with Boom on the possible advancement in the commercial aviation industry. Through this partnership, we hope to contribute to the future of supersonic travel with the intent of providing more ‘time’ to our valued passengers while emphasizing flight safety,” said Yoshiharu Ueki, President of Japan Airlines, in a statement obtained by PRNewswire.
“Ninety minutes from New York to Paris” has a nice ring to it.
E-COMMERCE WARS: Target acquires Shipt, will roll out $99/year, same-day delivery.
GOOD LUCK WITH THAT: Erdogan Says Muslim nations to seek UN ‘annulment’ of Trump’s Jerusalem move.
TOO BAD FOR THEM THAT BOTS AND SOCKPUPPETS DON’T HAVE THE VOTE: Dems Vow to Take Net Neutrality to SCOTUS, Make FCC Move a Midterm Issue.
HARD LABOR: Putin’s ex-economy minister sentenced to eight years in prison colony for accepting bribe.
Mr Ulyukayev was responsible for the Russian economy until a sting operation before dawn on 15 November last year. His downfall was orchestrated by Rosneft chief Igor Sechin, a powerful associate of Vladimir Putin. After inviting the former minister to his offices, he handed him a basket of sausages and another locked bag, containing $2m. Mr Ulyukayev was stopped by security agents waiting outside, and became the first cabinet minister to be arrested since Stalin’s henchman Lavrenty Beria in 1953.
The former minister insists he believed the bag contained fine wine, and in court challenged Mr Sechin to appear for cross-examination. On four occasions, the Rosneft chief refused.
Today, the judge mumbled through the verdict, somewhat nervously, and often repeating herself. In almost every detail, she sided with Mr Sechin and the prosecution. She was trembling as she read out the sentence.
Last week, prosecutors asked for a sentence of 10 years in prison colony. Mr Ulyukayev, 61, and visibly frailer than a year ago, likened this to a “death sentence.” In his final word, Mr Ulyukayev insisted on his innocence and compared his case to Stalinist show trials. “Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls,” he said. “It tolls for you.”
Why was the judge so nervous?
BE EVIL: Google Is Using Its Immense Power To Censor Content That Doesn’t Fit Its Political Goals.
The Daily Caller released a funny video Tuesday of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai defending the committee’s upcoming net-neutrality rollback. Through Wednesday and Thursday, liberals and others who dislike Pai’s political position lost their minds. And by Friday morning, Google, one of the most powerful companies on the planet, had censored the video based on a bogus claim from a politically motivated man.
It took seven crucial hours and the full force of our news site to push Google and YouTube to reverse this political censorship. We were able to prevail because of the sizable contacts and resources of TheDC. An average citizen showcasing a political viewpoint Google and the left disagreed with would almost certainly have had a far more difficult — and fruitless — time fighting back.
I’m not a big fan of antitrust, but if any company deserves some tough regulatory scrutiny, it’s Google.
THE SOLUTION TO ANY GOVERNMENT-CREATED CRISIS IS ALWAYS MORE GOVERNMENT: L.A’s “Solution” To Affordable Housing Scarcity Is A Circular Firing Squad.
Related (From Ed) At Ricochet, Richard Epstein on California’s Single-Family Home Gridlock.
HMM: ISIS Acknowledges NYC Subway Bomber, But Refuses to Claim Ullah as Their Own.
This report is from Bridget Johnson, whose unexplained and unacknowledged Twitter banishment remains unexplained and unacknowledged by Twitter management.
QUESTION ASKED: Is The Oil Glut Set To Return?
Late last month, when OPEC agreed to extend its production cuts through the end of 2018, the U.S. EIA came out with data – on the same day as the OPEC announcement – that showed an explosive increase in shale output for the month of September, up 290,000 bpd from the month before.
Although there is a time lag on publishing production data, the huge jump in output in September, plus the spike in rig count activity over the past few weeks, points to strength in the U.S. shale sector. Against that backdrop, the IEA predicted that non-OPEC supply would grow by 1.6 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2018, a rather significant upward revision of 0.2 mb/d compared to last month’s report.
Adding insult to injury for OPEC, the IEA sees oil demand growing by just 1.3 mb/d. In other words, supply will grow at a faster pace than demand next year, opening up a global surplus once again.
Maybe I should buy a faster car.
J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: New Poll Reveals Patriotism Gap. “NFL Seen as Unpatriotic, Majority Says American Ideological Divide Can Never Heal.”
Viking announced a couple of years ago a plan to bring its luxe longboats to the Mississippi River, but last week the city manager from one those little communities got word Viking had terminated its plans, WQAD in the Quad Cities reports. The cruise ships Viking had been wanting to build and operate would have ended up costing double what they had planned, according to the report.
“As the details were being refined, it became the economics did not meet Viking’s goals,” a company statement read.
No new tourists. No new tourist revenue. No new tourism jobs.
Our own federal laws are to blame. More specifically, President Grover Cleveland’s Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA). The 1886 law requires that in order to ferry passengers between ports in the United States, the ship must have been built in the United States and be owned and operated by Americans.
If the absurd contours of this law sound suspiciously familiar, it’s because these restrictions are just like the Jones Act, the terrible protectionist law that uses similar rules and ultimately drives up the costs of shipping goods to U.S. islands and territories.
The supply/demand curve works — right until it crashes to zero against the brick wall of government.
THE HILL: Prominent lawyer sought donor cash for two Trump accusers.
California lawyer Lisa Bloom’s efforts included offering to sell alleged victims’ stories to TV outlets in return for a commission for herself, arranging a donor to pay off one Trump accuser’s mortgage and attempting to secure a six-figure payment for another woman who ultimately declined to come forward after being offered as much as $750,000, the clients told The Hill.
The women’s accounts were chronicled in contemporaneous contractual documents, emails and text messages reviewed by The Hill, including an exchange of texts between one woman and Bloom that suggested political action committees supporting Hillary Clinton were contacted during the effort.
Bloom, who has assisted dozens of women in prominent harassment cases and also defended film executive Harvey Weinstein earlier this year, represented four women considering making accusations against Trump last year. Two went public, and two declined.
In a statement to The Hill, Bloom acknowledged she engaged in discussions to secure donations for women who made or considered making accusations against Trump before last year’s election.
Read the whole thing.
CHANGE: Gillibrand, Cruz Bill Would Give Capitol Hill Sexual Harassment Victims More Rights. “Gardner, other senators want to end mandatory non-disclosure agreements, taxpayer-funded settlements, and confidential settlements.”
WELL THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: The Marine Corps Is Testing a Fully Autonomous Huey Helicopter.
The tests, which took place in late November, involved a hardware and software kit known as Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System (AACUS) which includes both hardware and software and can be installed on any rotary wing aircraft. The Marines currently fly three different helicopters: the CH-53E Super Stallion heavy transport helicopter, the AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopter, and the UH-1Y utility/light attack helicopter.
The hardware side of the AACUS kit involves a LiDAR sensor for ranging and ground mapping, and cameras for obstacle avoidance and route planning. According to USNI News, the hardware used were commercial, off-the-rack components easily sourced in the civilian market. The software, including flight algorithms, was developed by Aurora.
The autonomous tests consisted of three simulated missions, in which the unmanned UH-1H “Huey,” given guidance by Marine infantrymen with just “mere hours” of instruction by Aurora engineers, flew supplies to a remote outpost. The Marines interacted with the Huey via a tablet and laptop computer.
Not bad for a platform which first flew in 1956.
MATTHEW WALTHER: Net neutrality is dead. Good riddance.
Even if there were no other compelling arguments in favor of killing net neutrality (though there are), the end of net neutrality would be welcome because it will frustrate the hopes of the largest group temper tantrum thrown by non-toddlers in recent American history.
Has this country ever seen a more simperingly childish mob than the one responsible for the outcry over this boring prudential question concerning the allocation of hertz? Has so much canned emotion ever been spilled over so bland and technocratic and uniquely prudential an issue? Having strong feelings about net neutrality — which essentially mandates that your internet service provider treats all internet traffic and data equally — is like getting upset over a public-access TV debate on the generic ballot or the proceedings of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans, and Insular Affairs.
If nothing else, ludicrous statements like the one from the heads of the New York, Brooklyn, and Queens Public Library systems calling the proposed change “appalling” and the gravest threat to education this country faces do the helpful work of reminding us that, like public schools, libraries in this country are now little more than transmission centers for digital entertainment.
Meanwhile, Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has received death threats against his children.
The choreographed temper tantrum has been… sadly typical.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Possible Deep State Coup, Nat. Sec. Strategy Preview and Much, Much More.
THE DEEP STATE STRIKES BACK: State Department Employing ‘Pretzel Logic’ in Defiance of Trump’s Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital.
President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last week, but the State Department will not recognize that fact on official documents, maps, and passports, saying boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations.
“We’re working with something here I like to refer to as pretzel logic, and it’s something we see from this State Department quite often, especially when it comes to issues like Israel,” Kredo said.
Kredo said hostility toward Israel is deeply embedded at the State Department. His sources told him that career diplomats at the agency strongly opposed Trump’s decision to make the recognition announcement last week.
“The White House really dragged the State Department along on this,” Kredo said, adding that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was forced to call Arab leaders about the announcement.
“Twisting and turning to not actually fully implement the president’s will,” Kredo said of the State Department.
SecState Tillerson has a personnel problem in his Department, which could be ameliorated with a few high-profile firings — so why won’t he?
LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Flood of Venezuelans are fleeing depressed country.
“Leaving was tough, but staying would have been tougher,” said Andrea Sequiera, 29, as she waits at the back of the line with her husband Luis, 31, and 8-year-old son Fabian. ”We know lots of people who would like to get out of Venezuela but can’t afford the ticket.”
Although Venezuelans for years have been fleeing the “socialist revolution” first launched by the late Hugo Chávez in 1999, in recent months the trickle has turned into a flood as living conditions become ever more dire — from hyperinflation to acute shortages of food and medicine to one of the worst homicide rates in the world.
In response to protests over the once-wealthy country’s seeming demise, President Nicolás Maduro’s increasingly authoritarian regime has cracked down on opponents, making prospects for improved times less and less likely.
Unexpectedly.
I ALWAYS THOUGHT SURGEONS COULD BE EGOTISTICAL, BUT… Surgeon pleads guilty to burning initials into patients’ organs.