More amazing pumpkin carving

We've met Ray Villafane in these pages before. He's probably the foremost pumpkin sculptor (to coin a phrase) in the USA today.

The Las Vegas Sun has just published a selection of pictures of his pumpkin carvings. Here are three of them to whet your appetite. (Copyright is vested in Ray Villafane Studios, not the newspaper, and they've been released as publicity material, so I can legally reproduce them here.)








There are many more images at the link. Entertaining viewing, particularly at this time of the year. I hope some of my readers will find inspiration there.

Peter

The European financial 'bailout' and its implications for the USA

I'm sure readers have been following the news of the just-agreed 'bailout' for Greece, and the promise of 'stability' it allegedly brings to the European economic zone.

Let me sum up the true meaning of these developments in a single carefully-selected, suitably descriptive word.

Bullshit.

The European agreement is not only worse than useless; it's a harbinger of what I believe will be massive economic disruption in Europe, the effects of which are inevitably going to spread to the USA as well. Here's why.


1. The deal rewards Greece for its lying, corrupt, spendthrift ways. It doesn't impose any penalties for past misconduct - only for future noncompliance with the latest agreement. Given the lack of any consequences for past misdeeds - including failing to comply with the terms of the first 'bailout' agreement - does anyone really believe Greece won't do exactly the same thing again? Why shouldn't they? After all, what have they got to lose?


2. Other problematic European economies - most notably Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain - are in almost as much trouble as Greece. I'll bet my pension to a penny that the fiscal authorities in those countries are now figuring that if Greece can get away with murder, financially speaking, they're going to do the same - whether the EU likes it or not. Again, what have they got to lose by trying? Nothing whatsoever. (The good people at Zero Hedge appear to agree with me.)


3. Europe's banks are amongst the most highly leveraged in the world, with an average 25-to-1 ratio across the continent. This means that even a 4% drop in asset prices wipes out - I repeat, WIPES OUT - their equity. These same banks have just been informed by the European fiscal authorities that they must - MUST - accept a 50% write-down of their investments in Greek bonds. The big gun is being held to their heads by their own politicians, out of sheer desperation to find a solution . . . and it won't work. As Zero Hedge put it on Tuesday:

Folks, something VERY bad is brewing behind the scenes. The Sarkozy-Merkel talks, the short-selling bans, the halted stocks, the leveraged EFSF, the hints of QE 3, all of this is telling us that the financial system is on DEFCON 1 Red Alert.

Ignore stocks, they’re ALWAYS the last to “get it.” The credit markets are jamming up just like they did in 2008. The banking system is flashing all the same signals as well.

So if you have not already taken steps to prepare for systemic failure, you NEED to do so NOW. We're literally at most a few months, and very likely just a few weeks from Europe's banks imploding.

There's more at the link. I agree with their perspective. I can't see any way many of the largest European banks can survive this without massive government intervention - and even that will be a mirage, a chimera, printing money rather than using real assets to save the banksters from the results of their own folly.


4. Nor are leverage issues the only problem. Seeking Alpha sums it up as follows:

FACT #2: European Financial Corporations are collectively sitting on debt equal to 148% of TOTAL EU GDP.

Yes, financial firms’ debt levels in Europe exceed Europe’s ENTIRE GDP. These are just the financial firms. We’re not even bothering to mention non-financial corporate debt, household debt, sovereign debt, etc.

Also remember, collectively, the EU is the largest economy in the world (north of $16 trillion). So we’re talking about over $23 TRILLION in debt sitting on European financials’ balance sheets.

Oh, I almost forgot, this data point only includes “on balance sheet” debt. We’re totally ignoring off-balance sheet debt, derivatives, etc. So REAL financial corporate debt is much MUCH higher.

KA-BOOM.

FACT #3: European banks need to roll over between 15% and 50% of their total debt by the end of 2012.

That’s correct, European banks will have to roll over HUGE quantities of their debt before the end of 2012. Mind you, we’re only talking about maturing debt. We’re not even considering NEW debt or equity these banks will have to issue to raise capital.

Considering that even the “rock solid” German banks need to raise over $140 BILLION in new capital alone, we’re talking about a TON of debt issuance coming out of Europe’s banks in the next 14 months. And this is happening in an environment prone to riots, bank runs, and failed bond auctions (Germany just had a failed bond auction yesterday).

KA-BOOM

FACT #4: In order to meet current unfunded liabilities (pensions, healthcare, etc) without defaulting or cutting benefits, the average EU nation would need to have OVER 400% of its current GDP sitting in a bank account collecting interest.

. . .

Folks, the EFSF, the bailouts, China coming to the rescue… all of that stuff is 100% pointless in the grand scheme of things. Europe’s ENTIRE banking system (with few exceptions) is insolvent. Numerous entire European COUNTRIES are insolvent. Even the more “rock solid” countries such as Germany (who is supposed to save Europe apparently) have REAL Debt to GDP ratios of over 200% and STILL HAVEN’T RECAPITALIZED THEIR BANKS.

Again, it DOES NOT matter what Sarkozy and Merkel say. It doesn’t matter how much leverage the EFSF gets. Europe is broke. End of story.

. . .

The impact of the fallout from this will make 2008 look like a joke. The EU is the largest economy in the world. So if its banking system collapses (and it will) we’re facing a full-scale Global financial meltdown (the IMF has even warned of this).

Again, more at the link - and it's very worthwhile reading.


5. Note the mention of 'derivatives' in the Seeking Alpha article above. They're a nightmare in themselves. As another Seeking Alpha article outlines:

If you add up the value of every stock on the planet, the entire market capitalization would be about $36 trillion. If you do the same process for bonds, you’d get a market capitalization of roughly $72 trillion.

The notional value of the derivative market is roughly $1.4 QUADRILLION.

I realize that number sounds like something out of Looney tunes, so I’ll try to put it into perspective.

$1.4 Quadrillion is roughly:

- 40 TIMES THE WORLD’S STOCK MARKET.

- 10 TIMES the value of EVERY STOCK & EVERY BOND ON THE PLANET.

- 23 TIMES WORLD GDP.

. . .

If these numbers scare you, you’re not alone. As early as 1998, soon to be chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Brooksley Born, approached Alan Greenspan, Bob Rubin, and Larry Summers (the three heads of economic policy) about derivatives. She said she thought derivatives should be reined in and regulated because they were getting too out of control. The response from Greenspan and company was that if she pushed for regulation, the market would implode.

Remember, this was back in 1998: a full DECADE before the Crisis hit. And already, the guys in charge of the markets knew that derivatives were such a big problem that trying to regulate them or increase their transparency would destroy the market. If you think I’m exaggerating, you can read the actual Washington Post story here.

. . .

... you simply cannot discuss the Financial Crisis without mentioning derivatives. What do you think subprime mortgage backed securities were? Derivatives. What about Credit Default Swaps? Yep, derivatives again. Heck, even the Greece crisis involved that country using derivatives to hide its true liabilities in order to join the European Union.

In plain terms, derivatives are THE cause of the Financial Crisis. They are behind EVERY failure/ default that has occurred thus far. The fact that virtually no one is willing to address this issue or include it in the discussion of how to insure we don’t have a Second Round of the Crisis only confirms the fact that no one has a clue how to resolve this situation.

Again, more at the link. It's almost beyond belief . . . but it's all true. Read it and weep.


6. The USA will be dragged into this whether we like it or not. Consider the behavior of the Federal Reserve in the recent past - lending trillions (yes, trillions) of dollars to US and European banks and financial institutions to help keep them afloat. You want to bet the same thing isn't on the cards right now? If you do, there's a bridge in Brooklyn, NYC I'd like to sell you. Cash only, please, and in small bills. The Fed daren't let European banks go down the tubes, because that would impact the entire global economy, including those who buy US bonds and thereby fund the operations of the US government (which borrows close to half of every single dollar it spends). Therefore, it'll print dollars like there's no tomorrow, and hand them out by the trillions to prop up a failing Europe, because it can't afford to let it fail. For you and I, the men and women in the streets, that means more inflation on the way, coupled with negative real interest rates and the collapse of our retirement savings. As one knowledgeable observer puts it:

Bearing in mind that monetary debasement is accelerating throughout the world, I anticipate a serious inflation problem. Although the governments in the West want you to believe that inflation is running at 2 or 3 percent per annum, the reality is that consumer prices are exploding all over the world and the establishment is under-reporting the price increases. Throughout history, precious metals and other hard assets have protected one's purchasing power during economic turmoil and I expect a similar outcome in this great inflation. Now, it is conceivable that if the governments and central banks continue to create "money", we may all become billionaires. Unfortunately, when that occurs, it will probably take five hundred dollars to buy a cup of coffee! Well, you get the idea.

Again, more at the link - and very worthwhile reading. Bold print is my emphasis.


Friends, I've been warning of dark times to come for many months now. Some people still believe I'm way too negative, that things will somehow magically 'be all right'. I'm afraid not. What you're seeing right now is the inevitable result of years - decades! - of laissez-faire deregulation and the resulting liberation of banksters' greed. The financial chickens hatched during those years are now coming home to roost.

Get under cover and stay there, folks. This is going to be a wild ride.

Peter

Teh cuteness!

All right, this one's for animal-lovers. A rare white baby wombat has been rescued in South Australia. Inevitably, he's been named 'Polar', and is now in the care of a human 'foster mother'. Here's a video clip of the little beastie doing his baby thing.

All together, now: Aaaaaawwww!



Peter

Doofus Of The Day #540

Today's winner is from Northern Ireland.

A Northern Ireland man who tried to turn his own faeces into gold by putting it on an electric heater has been jailed for three months.

The bizarre experiment, carried out by Paul Moran, 30, caused around £3,000 [about US $4,800] worth of damage to his Housing Executive home in a block of flats at Derrin Park in Enniskillen in July.

. . .

The judge noted that Moran was now on anti-psychotic medication and agreed with the findings of a pre-sentence report, which said he did not pose “a significant risk of serious harm”.

There's more at the link.

I've heard of the philosopher's stone, of course, but that was supposed to transmute base metals into precious ones. I've never heard of a version that could transform . . . shall we say, even baser materials into something more valuable! As for anti-psychotic medication, one hopes Mr. Moran has a lifetime supply of it - but as a further precaution, shouldn't he be forbidden the possession or use of laxatives?





Peter

It's enough to make anyone an environmentalist . . .

The Daily Mail has published an article containing many aerial photographs of the effects of pollution on the North American landscape. Here's an excerpt.

J Henry Fair's spectacular aerial images show the devastation man has wreaked on America.

Pollution is exposed on a massive scale, creating striking vivid colours that highlight the scars of spillages, open cast mining, chemical and oil leaks, industrial decay and deforestation.

Bauxite waste from aluminum production near Darrow, Louisiana

Mr Fair, from New York, said the beauty of the pictures draws people in and then they learn the reasons for the vivid colours and the shapes.

He said: 'I have been concerned about environmental issues for a long time as well as being fascinated by the graphic beauty of machines and the importance of industrial decay.

Oil spill from BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

'During the shooting process, I am looking to compose and create images that will captivate, so in some sense I am attempting to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

'I have found that the reason this project has had so much success is because the beauty of the images initially draws audiences in; they are captivating in the same way that timeless pieces by the great abstract expressionists are.

Tailings left by oil-from-sand extraction at Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

'I think that if the initial beauty in the photographs was not present, the project would not have the same affect on people.

'Because the pictures are so beautiful, people want to learn more about what is going on in each image.'

Mr Fair has a photographic studio in New York and his images are available in his new book called 'The Day After Tomorrow: Images of Our Earth in Crisis'.

There are many more (and much larger) images at the link, and also at the project's Web site and the photographer's Web site. Troubling viewing, but I think also very important. This is one area where I wish we had more and stronger regulation - to prevent companies causing such disastrous pollution, and/or to force them to clean it up.

Peter

This condom's from the government, and it's here to help you!

Or . . . not so much. GlobalPost reports:

Julie Peroni liked everything about her new boyfriend and she couldn’t wait for the first time he spent the night.

“Things were going really well,” said Peroni, 26, before pausing dramatically. “But then he pulled out a government condom. Like I would ever date somebody who uses government condoms!”

"Government condoms" refer to the millions of free condoms funded by the state and distributed throughout South Africa each year as a way to fight the massive epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV.

But even as the phrase has entered the South African lexicon, results have been decidedly mixed. Moreover, the practice has become another class marker in a country with a vast gap between rich and poor, dividing those who can afford the latest ribbed, lubricated and flavored varieties from those who rely on free protection, the carnal answer to government food stamps.

Most young, cosmopolitan Capetownians will instantly recognize the freebies: unsubtle, dark blue condom wrappers with a bright yellow circle and the brand name “Choice." They're quick to offer opinions, from the pragmatically positive — “It's great. Why would anybody ever pay for condoms?” — to the positively pragmatic: “I don’t trust anything the government does, especially not condoms.”

There's more at the link.

(In passing, it's worth mentioning that last month, a South African court ordered that country's government not to buy 11 million female condoms from a Chinese manufacturer . . . partly on the grounds that they were too small! Instead, the court ordered that the contract go to a different company, which plans to import larger condoms that meet international health standards and regulations.)

South Africa's long had a problem encouraging the use of condoms in a male-dominated, patriarchal tribal culture. Many men from that background regarded (and some still regard) the use of condoms as being somehow an affront to their masculinity. The 'condom campaign' must also contend with an endemic, abysmally low level of education and understanding. Many years ago, one of my sisters trained as a community health nurse in Crossroads and what was to become Khayelitsha townships, outside Cape Town. She told us she'd gotten into terrible trouble through using a broomstick to demonstrate to men how they should put on a condom. She swore they were coming back, highly indignant, to report that their wives or girlfriends were pregnant, "even though, every night, we put the condom on the broomstick - just like you showed us!"





Peter

Sticking it to America, one more time

I'm furious to read about President Obama's latest education 'initiative' - one that's likely to cost the already overburdened American taxpayer untold billions of dollars.

In keeping with his new campaign theme of “we can’t wait,” President Obama today will roll out a plan to put more money in the pockets of some of the nation’s 36 million student loan recipients.

Obama has broad latitude in this area – certainly broader than the first two parts of his western campaign trip, underwater mortgages and subsidies for hiring veterans – because one of his early legislative initiatives was to have the federal government take over the student lending business in America.

Obama argued for the measure in 2009 as a cost-savings initiative, saying that the old system of privately issued, government secured loans reduced the amount of available money for needy students and also prevented the feds from making the system more efficient.

But Obama is now seeking to use that new power to obtain a taxpayer-financed stimulus that Congress won’t approve. The idea is to cap student loan repayment rates at 10 percent of a debtor’s income that goes above the poverty line, and then limiting the life of a loan to 20 years.

Take this example: If Suzy Creamcheese gets into George Washington University and borrows from the government the requisite $212,000 to obtain an undergraduate degree, her repayment schedule will be based on what she earns. If Suzy opts to heed the president’s call for public service, and takes a job as a city social worker earning $25,000, her payments would be limited to $1,411 a year after the $10,890 of poverty-level income is subtracted from her total exposure.

Twenty years at that rate would have taxpayers recoup only $28,220 of their $212,000 loan to Suzy.

. . .

The best part for Obama is that he can obligate the Treasury without Congressional approval thanks to the passage of what he described as a cost-saving measure in 2009.

There's more at the link.

So 'Suzi Creamcheese' can study 'Queer Musicology' or 'The Phallus' (not to mention underwater basket weaving), and run up tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt . . . only to have you and I, the taxpayers of America, made responsible for her debts, all because President Obama is looking for any issue - anything at all - that he can use to gain support for his re-election. The fact that student loans have become a trillion-dollar nightmare, and college and university education have become a bubble almost as bad as the recent housing bubble, are all factors that make this even more ridiculous and unsupportable - let alone unsustainable.

I guess it sucks to be one of the (seemingly few) responsible citizens of America - at least, it sucks under this Administration . . . We'd better do something about that in 2012!





Peter

Gambling cat!

This made me giggle.

Peter

Is the US government giving ITSELF permission to lie to us?

Via Dustbury, we learn of a very disturbing development concerning the freedom of official information. Pro Publica reports:

A proposed rule to the Freedom of Information Act would allow federal agencies to tell people requesting certain law-enforcement or national security documents that records don’t exist – even when they do.

. . .

Open-government groups object.

"We don’t believe the statute allows the government to lie to FOIA requesters,” said Mike German, senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes the provision.

The ACLU, along with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and OpenTheGovernment.org said the move would “dramatically undermine government integrity by allowing a law designed to provide public access to government to be twisted.

. . .

... the advocacy groups propose another response: You have requested “...records which, if they exist, would not be subject to the disclosure requirements of FOIA...”

They prefer such language because a last resort is to sue to obtain the records, something people requesting information might not do if they assumed that no records existed.

Open government groups also contend that the proposed rule could undermine judicial proceedings.

In a recent case brought by the ACLU of Southern California, the FBI denied the existence of documents. But the court later discovered that the documents did exist. In an amended order, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney wrote that the “Government cannot, under any circumstance, affirmatively mislead the Court.”

There's more at the link.

I find this deeply disturbing. For government bureaucrats to want to give themselves permission to lie to us, the citizens whose consent is necessary for any organization to govern us . . . that's unconscionable! I sincerely hope this proposed rule change is not implemented; and if it is, I hope someone or some group can establish standing to sue for its repeal, as quickly as possible. If we can't trust our government not to lie to us about a simple request for information, how can we trust it to tell the truth in any other way, or in any other forum, or concerning any other matter?

Bureaucrats! Grrr!





Peter

Art Nouveau in stunning detail

The good people at Dark Roasted Blend have produced another wonderful article, this time a treasure-trove of pictures of Art Nouveau products and designs. Here are a few examples to whet your appetite.

Unidentified Art Nouveau bottle

Victor Laloux - Beaux-Arts clock

Émile Gallé - 'Dragonfly' stool, 1898

There are many more at the link. Highly recommended viewing.

Peter

Auctioning a tooth???

I was somewhat taken aback to read today that the late John Lennon's tooth is to be auctioned.

A molar from the Beatle legend's mouth will go on the auction block next month, and the reserve price has been set at $16,000.

. . .

The biter was handed down to Dorothy "Dot" Jarlett when she worked as Lennon's housekeeper at his home in Surrey, according to her son Barry. Jarlett was employed between 1964 and 1968, when giving teeth to the help was all the rage among the world's most famous rockers.

"She was very close with John, and one day whilst chatting in the kitchen, John gave my mother the tooth (he had been to the dentist to have it removed that day) and suggested giving it to my sister as a souvenir, as she was a huge Beatles fan," he said. "It has been in the family ever since."

There's more at the link.

This opens the door to all sorts of comments, doesn't it?

• Since the tooth was removed because of decay, and Lennon loved cats, could we call this tooth his Mac-cavity?
• Given the long history of complaints by many recording artists that recording companies are exploiting (if not cheating) them over rights, royalties, etc., could Lennon's tooth become a symbol of in-dentured servitude?
• Since the Beatles' music is now available from Apple's iTunes, could they buy the tooth and make it their new symbol - as "i-Chewns"?

I know, I know . . . "Don't give up your day job!"





Peter

The last Cold War monster warhead?

It seems the last survivor of the United States' Cold War arsenal of monster thermonuclear warheads met its end today - destructively, yes, but thankfully not self-destructively. Wired reports:

Out at the Energy Department’s Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, the last of America’s B-53s is in storage. Come Tuesday, it will be dissected: The 300 pounds of high explosives will be separated from its enriched uranium heart, known as a “pit.” The pit will be placed into a storage locker at Pantex, where it will await a final, highly supervised termination.

B-53 nuclear bomb at Pantex facility (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

“It’s the end of the era of monster weapons, if you will,” says Hans Kristensen, who directs the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of the American Scientists.

First brought into the U.S. nuclear stockpile in 1962, the B-53 was so big because it was so dumb. With poor precision mechanisms for finding a target — “Its accuracy was horrendous,” Kristensen says — what it lacked in smarts it made up in strength. The nukes that vaporized Hiroshima were a mere 12 kilotons; the B53 provided nine megatons — 9,000 kilotons — of destructive power.

And it was designed to burrow deep. The B53 wasn’t just any old megabomb. It was the first bunker buster. U.S. nuclear doctrine called for it to be delivered over suspected underground Soviet command-and-control facilities. The dumb bomb wouldn’t destroy them so much as it would destroy everything remotely near it, leaving — literally — a smoldering crater. That was the U.S. plan for “victory” in a nuclear war right up until the implosion of the Soviet Empire.

There's more at the link.

Wikipedia describes the B-53 as follows:

The B53 was 12-foot-6-inch (3.81 m) long with a diameter of 50 inches (1.27 m). It weighed 8,850 pounds (4,010 kg), including the 800-to-900 lb (360-to-410 kg) parachute system and the honeycomb aluminum nose cone to enable the bomb to survive laydown delivery. It had five parachutes: one 5-foot (1.52 m) pilot chute, one 16-foot (4.88 m) extractor chute, and three 48-foot (14.63 m) main chutes. Chute deployment depends on delivery mode, with the main chutes used only for laydown delivery. For free-fall delivery, the entire system was jettisoned.

The warhead of the B53 uses oralloy (highly enriched uranium) instead of plutonium for fission, with a mix of lithium-6 deuteride fuel for fusion. The explosive lens is a mixture of RDX and TNT, which is not insensitive. Two variants were made: the B53-Y1, a "dirty" weapon using a U-238-encased secondary, and the B53-Y2 "clean" version with a non-fissile (lead or tungsten) secondary casing. Explosive yield was approximately nine megatons.

Again, more at the link.

The design that would later be deployed as the B-53 bomb was tested during the Operation Hardtack I series of nuclear tests in 1958. YouTube offers a detailed three-part look at this test series; click the links for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. The specific test for the design that would become the B-53 (then known as the redesigned TX-46 device) was Test Oak, conducted on June 28th, 1958. It produced the mushroom cloud shown below (scanned from a 35mm. slide). Note the ships at the foot of the cloud, which provide some indication of its monstrous size - remembering that it was about 40 miles from the vessels! Test Oak produced a yield of about 8.9 megatons.




Let's be grateful that beast was never dropped in anger . . .

Peter

Meanwhile, in Russia . . .

. . . as one of the contributors to this video's comments thread pointed out, "In Russia, truck always fits under bridge!"

Peter

The real reason we have a government problem?

Via Melody Byrne, we find this explanation.




That does rather put it in a nutshell, doesn't it?

Speaking of problems with government, Cobb has a suggestion for the Occupy Wall Street protesters.







Peter

Some commenters are just plain weird

I apologize for having to terminate comments on the post I put up last night about the latest scandal in the Catholic Church. I'm afraid the comment thread got spammed by some idiot who seemed convinced I was nothing more than a Catholic-hater who needed to be put in his place, plus another person who appeared equally convinced that the Catholic Church is the biblical whore of Babylon and needs to be exposed as such. In both cases, the commenters produced a great deal of heat, but no light whatsoever. Rather than let them build up a head of steam until one or both exploded (and/or until others decided to jump in), I killed their comments and closed the thread.

I'll continue to allow open comments by anyone, from any point of view, as long as they're reasoned, rational and relatively polite. When the name-calling and mud-slinging starts, I clamp down. There's no place for that sort of nonsense here. I don't want to go to permanent comment moderation, as some bloggers have chosen to do; but if I have to do so, I will. Meanwhile, if my more sensible readers notice someone frothing at the mouth in a comment thread, please send me an e-mail (the address is in my blog profile) to let me know about it, in case I've missed it.

Thanks.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #539

Today's winner is from Vallejo in California.

At about 6 a.m., a groundskeeper of Blue Rock Springs Park heard a man screaming when he arrived at work. He then called the police to investigate.

. . .

The man told police that he had been stuck in the [child's] swing since 9 p.m. Friday after he allegedly made a $100 bet with his friends. He proceeded to lube himself with laundry detergent to get into the swing, police said.

The friends then reportedly left him swinging through the night.

There's more at the link.

A couple of points for our hero doofus:

1. If you have to lube yourself to squeeze into a swing's leg holes, getting out of them isn't likely to be easy, or painless, or fun.
2. With friends like those, who needs enemies?

Peter

More old-time carnage on wheels

Following my embedding last Saturday of a video clip about old-time car racing crashes, I found two articles over at Retronaut with pictures of old-time railway crashes. Some of them are quite spectacular. Here are a few examples to whet your appetite.








There are many more images in the two articles. Interesting and recommended reading.

Peter

Buying parts from the orbital scrapyard?

That's what the latest project from the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sounds like. They call it the Phoenix Program.

Communication satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GEO), approximately 22,000 miles above the earth, provide vital communication capabilities to warfighters. Today, when a communication satellite fails, it usually means the expensive prospect of having to launch a brand new replacement communication satellite. Many of the satellites which are obsolete or have failed still have usable antennas, solar arrays and other components which are expected to last much longer than the life of the satellite, but currently there is no way to re-use them.

The goal of the Phoenix program is to develop and demonstrate technologies to cooperatively harvest and re-use valuable components from retired, nonworking satellites in GEO and demonstrate the ability to create new space systems at greatly reduced cost. Phoenix seeks to demonstrate around-the-clock, globally persistent communication capability for warfighters more economically, by robotically removing and re-using GEO-based space apertures and antennas from de-commissioned satellites in the graveyard or disposal orbit.

The Phoenix program envisions developing a new class of small ‘satlets’, or nano satellites, which could be sent to the GEO region more economically as a “ride along” on a commercial satellite launch, and then attached to the antenna of a non-functional cooperating satellite robotically, essentially creating a new space system, leveraging the System F6 architecture. A payload orbital delivery system, or PODS, will also be designed to safely house the satlets for transport aboard a commercial satellite launch. A separate on-orbit ‘tender,’ or satellite servicing satellite is also expected to be built and launched into GEO. Once the tender arrives on orbit, the PODS would then be released from its ride-along host and link up with the tender to become part of the satellite servicing station’s ‘tool belt.’ The tender plans to be equipped with grasping mechanical arms for removing the satlets and components from the PODS using unique space tools to be developed in the program.

. . .

The first keystone mission of the Phoenix program in 2015 plans to demonstrate harvesting an existing, cooperative, retired satellite aperture, by physically separating it from the host non-working satellite using on-orbit grappling tools controlled remotely from earth. The aperture will then be reconfigured into a ‘new’ free-flying space system and operated independently to demonstrate the concept of space “re-use”.

There's more at the link. Here's a video discussing the program.

When you think about it, this program makes a heck of a lot of sense. If you can build a satellite without having to include bulky, complex aerials (which have to be stored in a folded position, and unfolded for use once the satellite is in orbit), you can make it much smaller and lighter. Since those components are already in orbit, no longer needed by their 'parent' satellite, it should be relatively simple to craft a connecting cable to plug the new satellites in to the old aerials.

Given that the lowest currently available cost (using the Russian Proton rocket) to lift a satellite from the Earth's surface to geosynchronous orbit (not low earth orbit) is about $8,000 per pound of weight, and that US launch systems are several times more expensive, cutting the launch weight by several hundred pounds adds up to a pretty massive saving in cost. Just goes to show . . . there's at least one government program that I think is economically rational and reasonable!

Peter

A prayer for mercy

After my post below, about the latest scandal to strike the Catholic Church, I simply can't find it in myself to be light-hearted tonight. The weight of this news is very heavy on my soul. I feel the need to pray for all those involved, the victims and the perpetrators, and the Church which has been so deeply wounded through these sins.

St. Augustine famously said (in so many words) that "he who sings, prays twice". In that spirit, I offer this recording of Allegri's Miserere (Psalm 51). The text may be found here, first in Latin, then in English translation. It's certainly my prayer for the Church tonight, and for myself, both in song and in spirit.

May God have mercy on us indeed.

Peter

A new scandal strikes the Catholic Church

I wish I had words to describe the ghastly, sick feeling in my stomach when, a few days ago, I read of a new scandal affecting the Catholic Church, this time in Spain. It appears that as many as 300,000 babies were literally stolen from their birth parents, who were informed that their children had died. The infants were then passed on - in many cases, sold - to adoptive parents who were considered 'more suitable' to care for them.

Ever since I first read these reports, I've been trying to shake off the sensation of living in a nightmare. I just can't get it through my head that someone could take vows as a Catholic priest, or monk, or brother, or nun, or sister, and then turn around and do things like this. It's as bad in its own way as the pedophiles who used the Church as a cloak to conceal their vile, wicked activities. I can, however (and do) believe that God's punishment on those guilty of either offense is something I'd rather not even imagine, let alone experience!

Tragically, I can understand the mindset that appears to have led so many in the Spanish Catholic Church to behave this way. It's the same mindset I've seen operating in so terribly many US Catholic bishops over the child sex abuse scandal here. It starts with the absolute, unshakeable conviction that God has ordained and appointed them to be the Apostle(s) of His Church, and that the Church is in their hands - and no-one else's - to defend and uphold against all enemies, at any cost. By definition, anyone criticizing or attacking the Church is an enemy, irrespective of their motivation, or whether or not their allegations are true. This morphs into an attitude that "We can and must do whatever we see fit to protect the Church, and the souls given into our charge. We don't have to explain, or justify, or defend our actions to anyone - God has given us the authority to do whatever is needful." That, in turn, leads to finding certain parents 'unsuitable' because of left-wing political sympathies, or insufficient enthusiasm for the right-wing Spanish dictator Francisco Franco (whose fascist political party, the Falange, was tightly integrated with the Spanish Catholic Church). From there, it's a short step to depriving parents of their birth children, under the absolute conviction that what one is doing is simultaneously blessed by God, in the best interests of the child, and vital for the stability of the State.

I weep for the Church. I grew up in her, and am very Catholic in my faith, in my heart and soul . . . but I can never again trust the vast majority of her leaders. I know there are upright, Godly individuals in the episcopate; but there are far too few of them. I greatly fear that the collective hierarchy of the Church has become what our Lord called the scribes and Pharisees.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

(Matthew 23:27-28)

How I hope and pray that I'm wrong about that . . .

May Almighty God have mercy upon us all.

Peter