Who would win? Not even a contest. Again from my dad:
* the 100 meter dash guy (Bolt) is going 10,235.41 mm per second
The men who witnessed this firsthand are now passing away.
Buchenwald, one of the largest concentration camps on German soil, was liberated on April 11th by four men (followed quickly by the rest of the US Army). One of those four, James Hoyt, passed away today, taking with him the memories of the horror he saw nearly 60 years ago.
A detachment of troops belonging to the US 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, US 6th Armored Division, US Third Army arrived at Buchenwald on 11 April 1945 under the leadership of Capt. Frederic Keffer. The squad, which consisted of PFC James Hoyt, Capt. Frederic Keffer, Tech. Sgt. Herbert Gottschalk, Sgt. Harry Ward entered the outer perimeter of the camp and reported its location to higher command. The four soldiers were given a hero’s welcome, with the emaciated survivors finding the strength to toss them into the air in celebration. On the same day, elements of the US 83rd Infantry Division overran Langenstein, one of a number of smaller camps comprising the Buchenwald complex. There the division liberated over 21,000 prisoners, compelled the mayor of Langenstein to send food and water to the camp, and sped medical supplies forward from the 20th Field Hospital. Third Army Headquarters sent elements of the US 80th Infantry Division to take control of the camp on the morning of 12 April 1945.
I can rarely read the obituaries nowdays without seeing the passing of men and women who lived during World War II and saw things that few others ever would see. It’s sad to think of how much wisdom and knowledge is passing away day by day, unrecorded and never to be obtained again.
]]>
The New York Times is reporting that the actual photo finish of the Michael Phelps’ 7th gold medal will not be released, despite the requests from many in the media.
Apparently Omega has underwater video that slows the action even more than the one-hundredth of a second that Phelps won by….
Christopher Clarey of The International Herald Tribune tracked down Cornel Marculescu, FINA’s executive director, at the Water Cube to ask him about the decision to not release the images. Marculescu said it was a matter of policy, and that the Serbian team was satisfied with the ruling after seeing the images — so there is no need to share the images.
As mentioned last night, the margin of victory is approximately 19.766mm, but I for one would really like to see it close up if they have the footage available.
UPDATE: Check out Sports Illustrated’s frame by frame. You can see the difference.
]]>
My dad just did the math and it works out like this:
]]>Phelps was splashing 1,977.066 mm per second. the ‘loser’ paddled at 1,976.675 mm per second – so he won by 0.391 mm per second difference x 50.58 seconds . . .19.766 mm –
Sometimes Russians actually believe their own propaganda. Proof of this is General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Russian armed forces’ deputy chief of staff, who basically threatened to nuke Poland for their participation in the US missile defense program.
“Poland, by deploying [the system] is exposing itself to a strike – 100 per cent,” he was quoted as saying, before explaining that Russian military doctrine sanctioned the use of nuclear weapons “against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them”.
Somewhere in Russia a village is missing an idiot.
]]>
And who said New Yorkers stand idly by?
Donnette Sanz, a seven month pregnant traffic warden was pinned under a ’short bus’ school bus yesterday in a horrible accident that turned out to be fatal for her. However, 20 to 30 people from a park, the sidewalk and a construction site rushed to the scene of the accident and were able to lift the school bus with their bare hands and pull out the woman’s body so that they could save the unborn baby.
Sean Michael Sanz was born yesterday by emergency c-section, 3lbs and 6 ounces. The driver of a van who caused the accident is being held for vehicular homicide. He has a suspended license since the 60s, a gun bust and a few other criminal records in his file.
]]>
Poland doesn't look like this, but this is the missile they are getting.
Russia is up in arms and threatening to ‘punish’ another former satellite nation for daring to go against the Russian views of the world. Under a deal signed yesterday, Poland will host 10 missile interceptors designed to knock out short-range ballistic missiles from Iran or another MIddle Eastern power. Nonetheless, Russia feels their approximately 1,500 nuclear warheads to be under threat from these 10 missiles.
At a news conference on Friday, a senior Russian military official, Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, suggested that Poland was making itself a target by agreeing to serve as host for the anti-missile system. Such an action “cannot go unpunished,” he said.
Poland, in signing the deal, learned a few lessons from the Georgia crisis. First they’re getting some air defense missiles (manned by Americans temporarily) and second they got an assurance about US military power in case Russia gets mad:
…the United States would be obliged to defend Poland in case of an attack with greater speed than required under NATO, of which Poland is a member.
Guess they learned about the Blitzkreig the hard way and don’t want to see it repeated from the East. If there is going to be some military action against the Poles, they want an American ‘tripwire’ (i.e. some Americans who will be killed in the first few shots) and fast reinforcements.
]]>
About two seconds after the announcer on tv said “these kids are representative of the average kids in China” my friends (from China) all said ‘bull crap”. The kids were dressed in fancy ethnic costumes of the 56 various ‘minorities’ in China but if you looked at them they were all very attractive and cute, and as we found out recently, all members of the Han majority.
Disney's small world puppets have escaped.
In other oddities, the soldiers who were inside the ‘Chinese characters’ demonstration have admitted they all wore adult diapers as they were in place, under the stadium, for upto seven hours before the ceremony with no time for a toilet break.
]]>
The recent crisis in Georgia has revealed the impotence of ‘Old Europe’ and NATO. Is it time for something new to meet the needs of New Europe?
Deja vu all over again?
While Russian tanks were crossing through the tunnels and passes (memo to Georgia: everyone knows you blow up the tunnels and bridges first), the leaders of Western Europe were basically caught with nothing to do. ”They haven’t shot at me” was basically the point that was on the mind of every Western European leader, followed quickly by “I don’t want to go nuclear over Georgia”. These two factors (not, in any way, who was right or who was wrong) were what kept most European leaders sitting on their hands as they watched Georgia get chewed to pieces.
When we used to study Soviet Military Power and Doctorine it was always assumed that the first time a Soviet tank went on the offensive it would be shooting at a NATO tank, and thus the decision to start fighting back would be off the table. Some 18-year-old kid in the turret of a tank somewhere in Germany was going to decide NATO’s response to a Soviet conventional attack. But in this new world, that ease of red force/blue force decision making is gone, and we’re stuck in the grey area.
You can find some contrast in the response of Europe if you take a look at the leaders of ‘New Europe. Composed of former Soviet states they were not afraid in the least to mess with the Bear, for they knew what awaited them should their countries fall back into the ’sphere of influence’. Ukraine has told the Black Sea fleet they can expect problems when they return, and leaders of many former Soviet republics flew into Georgia in the middle of the fight to provide counsel and assistance. Some in the Eastern European media are even asking if Old Europe really understands what is going on:
“Old Europe,” once again, failed to listen to the warnings of those with first-hand knowledge of Russian treachery. “Old Europe isn’t listening to Poles, Lithuanians and Ukrainians. Old Europe doesn’t want to anger Russia, and doesn’t see the integrity of Georgia’s borders as something worth risking its relationship with Moscow over,” the left-leaning daily Gazeta Wyborcza wrote. “Once again, we can only try to tell them that we’re not letting our feelings be guided by Russophobia but merely speaking from long years of personal experience.”
Unfortunately New Europe is pretty weak and the US is pretty busy elsewhere in the world. So it has me wondering if now is the time for a new, mini-version of NATO. Composed of the Eastern European states (and armed and supported by Old Europe). A NATO that does not have nukes and is not a nuclear threat to Russia, but one that is well equipped, trained, and ready to take on the Bear should it come poking around it’s old stomping grounds. A force like this might be the one needed to stop an aggressive and growing threat.
One by one, the old Soviet empire could be rebuilt by a resurgent Russia and a placid NATO. Georgia, Ukraine, Lativa, Estonia, etc. They could fall without most Americans even noticing to be quite honest. But if they fought together, they might actually have a chance. Perhaps it is time for New Europe to look for a new alliance to help them in the new reality they now face.
]]>
Steve Jobs doesn't need an anti-satellite missile to knock out XM & Sirius
I’ve already written a bit about my thoughts on the iPhone and how it will kill Satellite radio and a review of the iPhone radio applications, but Doc Searls is writing today about his similar experiences using the iPhone as the radio interface in his car. He raises a number of interesting points including:
4) The cell phone system will become a data system that carries telephony, rather than the vice versa we have now. The same goes for the Net at home as well. What we still have in both cases is dial-up: data piggy-backing on telephony or cable TV. In terms of provider priorities, that’s the way it’s been for awhile, but the flip is going to come, and the sooner we all adjust to that, the better.
5) The iPhone is less a phone than a platform for mobile Internet applications that start with telephony. Voice will always be the primary personal mobile communications activity; but it will be one application, or set of applications, among many. Radio is another of those applications.
Radio has had a decade of on again off again experience with the Internet and streaming, but it’s just never caught on due in large part to the ‘tethered to the computer’ experience that was required. People simply weren’t about to replace their clock radios with a PC and Internet radio devices just never could get a hold into the market (despite a lot of us trying). And on top of that, it didn’t work in the car (where many people do their radio listening). In short, the radio stations had it easy because it was so hard to listen to the competition.
But that’s over. The iPhone changes EVERYTHING. Yea it’s not the first to do streaming, nor is it the fastest of cheapest platform, but it is the first MASS MARKET adaptation of Internet radio to the car and other places that we’ve seen. You take all the Internet radio devices sold from when I came up with the idea nearly 10 years ago to now and you have less than the number of people who downloaded the Pandora radio application for the iPhone in the first six days. There are now nearly 4 million iPhones out there in the last year, with some of the free radio applications being the top downloads. It took XM six years to get to that number of subscribers. Who do you think is going to win the race for a listeners’ ears?
Quite simply, radio stations who are not paying attention will be radio stations who are out of business in the next five to ten years.
]]>