Archive for February 1st, 2008

Note to the MSM: Pictures Can Kill, Too

February 1st, 2008 by xformed

General Loan executes a VC
In a war long ago and far away, a “terrorist” was caught and executed. 40 years ago today, as a matter of historical fact.General Loan was murdered that day, and the man who took the photo came to realize it. Eddie Adams spent a lifetime trying to apologize:

[…]
Adams caught the instant of death in a photo that made front pages around the world. It would became one of the Vietnam’s War’s most indelible images, shocking the American public and used by critics to dispute official claims that the war was being won.

In later years Adams found himself so defined — and haunted — by the picture that he would not display it at his studio. He also felt it unfairly maligned Loan, who lived in Virginia after the war and died in 1998.

“The guy was a hero,” Adams said, recalling Loan’s explanation that the man he executed was a Viet Cong captain, responsible for murdering the family of Loan’s closest aide a few hours earlier.

“Sometimes a picture can be misleading because it does not tell the whole story,” Adams said in an interview for a 1972 AP photo book. “I don’t say what he did was right, but he was fighting a war and he was up against some pretty bad people.”
[…]

It’s about context. In context, in the heat of battle, a combatant not dressed in a uniform…well, the Geneva Conventions allow this.

On the other hand, another Vietnam War photographer (still living), denies it was right, questioned if the man killed had been killing and that gives an entirely different spin on the story, the exact opposite of the “justice” being protrayed:

[…]
Sadly Adams is dead, so the programme featured a different, but also distinguished, war photographer Philip Jones Griffiths. And Jones Griffiths described his feelings about the photo and his own decision to track down and photograph the executed man’s widow.

Jones Griffiths had strong views on the photo and gave them to us.

He dismissed the idea that the executed man had been a killer saying both that the idea that the man had just killed others was “kind of propaganda” and that “he wouldn’t have been much of a Vietcong soldier” if he hadn’t tried to kill people. He clearly viewed the photo’s power as being its revelation of the evil of the war and America’s involvement.
[…]

Nice to put your spin on the situation your professional peer, now passed away, witnessed, in context.

Anyhow, there’s context with the picture taken 40 years ago this day, and when it was, the shooting killed many things, including the reputation of a fighting man.Rosemary’s Baby dvd

Category: Political | Comments Off on Note to the MSM: Pictures Can Kill, Too

Tribute to the Challenger

February 1st, 2008 by xformed

I won’t repeat Steeljaw Scribe’s well written tribute, but I will add something I took away from this incident:

“High Calling: The Courageous Life and Faith of Space Shuttle Columbia Commander Rick Husband” by Evelyn Husband is a remarkable read. Evelyn wrote it less than a year after the accident that claimed the crew’s lives, but told a story of a man who had set his sight on being an astronaut in high school and then figured out how to get there.

But there’s more. It’s a story of a man who struggled to do the right thing always, and to be a great husband and father. His wife used his personal journals, not written for any purpose than to help Rick find his own way though his life’s journey, to let us see who he really was.

And more beyond that as well. Curious as to what it takes to be an astronaut? Wonder how someone gets where they want to? Think you’re the only one who has questions about what’s going on to you? Read about Rick, you’ll find answers that will know some things, too.

She’ll Be Wearing Pink Pyjamas movie download

Category: Military History | Comments Off on Tribute to the Challenger

Open Architecture for AEGIS Tests Sat

February 1st, 2008 by xformed

I have a background in combat systems OS’ from way back. Had the men who actually wrote the ACDS Block 0 system working for me. Smart, smart guys, who explained just why it was important to make it the way it was…for the most streamlined movement of tactically important data, unmolested by interrupts like “printer offline.” After I listened, it made lots and lots of sense. “Open source” operating systems were not designed with a combat imperative in mind. Makes a huge difference when SS-N-22s are inbound, ya think?

Not sure if I’m a fan of open systems software, but…the SPAWARs bubbas have shown it works on USS DESERT SHIP at White Sands Missile Range

. From the SpaceWar site:

US Navy Test Confirms Missile Firing Capability Of Aegis Open Architecture

Aegis Open Architecture will allow the Navy to stay on technology’s leading edge through its innovative use of commonly-available commercial off-the-shelf computing hardware and open system software, enabling the service to more easily implement technology refreshes and capability upgrades to the weapon system as they are developed in the future.
by Staff Writers
White Sands NM (SPX) Jan 31, 2008
In a successful first test of its advanced fire control system, Lockheed Martin’s [NYSE: LMT] Aegis Open Architecture Weapon System recently performed a successful missile firing from the U.S. Navy’s “USS Desert Ship” at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR). This was the first test of upgrades to both the Aegis Fire Control System and the MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) installed on the USS Desert Ship, the Navy’s land-based, live-fire test bed for surface-to-air weapons.

The platform is continually upgraded to meet the Navy’s live fire testing requirements.
[…]

I know it saves lots of hard won cash in the budget battles, but it also makes it easy for non-military types, as well as other then US military types to, if they get their hands on the code, to understand it much, much easier, if not the ability to decompile the code.

Call me a dinosaur in that way, but it makes my skin crawl.

Category: Technology | Comments Off on Open Architecture for AEGIS Tests Sat

Dragging Anchor, Submarine Cables and You

February 1st, 2008 by xformed

Some ship’s master got some ‘spalinin’ to do…hope his BA content was like 0%.

I suspect his story will begin with “It was a dark and stormy night…”

From The Guardian, “How one clumsy ship cut off the web for 75 million people”:

A flotilla of ships may have been dispatched to reinstate the broken submarine cable that has left the Middle East and India struggling to communicate with the rest of the world, but it took just one vessel to inflict the damage that brought down the internet for millions.

According to reports, the internet blackout, which has left 75 million people with only limited access, was caused by a ship that tried to moor off the coast of Egypt in bad weather on Wednesday. Since then phone and internet traffic has been severely reduced across a huge swath of the region, slashed by as much as 70% in countries including India, Egypt and Dubai.

While tens of millions have been directly affected, the impact of the blackout has spread far wider, with economies across Asia and the Middle East struggling to cope. Governments have also become directly involved, with the Egyptian communications ministry imploring surfers to stay offline so business traffic can take priority. “People who download music and films are going to affect businesses who have more important things to do,” said ministry spokesman Mohammed Taymur.
[…]

So, consider the implications of large scale cyber attacks, if that day comes.Babylon 5: A Call to Arms movie full

Category: Technology | Comments Off on Dragging Anchor, Submarine Cables and You

How "The Word" saves….

February 1st, 2008 by xformed

Wow…forever changed.

Brothers Three: An American Gothic divx

Category: Army | Comments Off on How "The Word" saves….

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