I don't think you want to download their app

Via Noah at Wired, nice work if you can get it.

When trading ended Tuesday night at the New York Stock Exchange, the closing bell wasn’t rung by a titan of finance or an imported celebrity. It was sounded by the CEO of an obscure defense firm with deep ties to the U.S. intelligence and special operations communities. The traders on the floor may not have recognized Mary Margaret “Peggy” Styer. But her company’s products are well known by the small group of commandos and spies who hunt down top terrorists.

Over the last decade Styer’s company, the Virginia-based Blackbird Technologies, has become a leading supplier of equipment for the covert “tagging, tracking and locating” of suspected enemies. Every month, U.S. Special Operations Command spends millions of dollars on Blackbird gear. The U.S. Navy has a contract with Blackbird for $450 million worth of these so-called “TTL” devices. “Tens of thousands” of Blackbird’s devices have been sent to the field, according to a former employee. And TTL is just one part of the Herndon, Virginia firm’s multifaceted relationship with the special operations, intelligence and traditional military services.
...
One U.S. Special Operations Command shopping list for Blackbird’s “close access persistent surveillance equipment,” issued on Sept. 15, 2009, gives a sense of how widespread the company’s gear was used. The list included 363 iBat, iFox and Outlaw tracking devices; 1,355,000 “beacons” from those devices; 110,000 “shots” to the Globalstar communications satellite; 393,000 SMS messages (including 135,000 on Blackbird’s “secure TTL server”); radio frequency transmitters, terminals for the CDMA and GSM 3G cellular networks; and 135 HTC smartphones. Fifteen days later, the Command announced it would spend $3.6 million on the equipment.

Blackbird doesn’t just track targets. Once that person is located, Blackbird specialists also work to unlock the data from his or her computers, discs and drives. “Like, if you found Osama’s laptop,” a former employee says. (The interview was conducted before the raid on bin Laden’s compound. Since then, Blackbird hasn’t responded to multiple requests to comment for this story.)

According to the Washington Post, Blackbird developed “a compact, rugged, powerful, all-in-one kit” to pull out this information. “Its capabilities include detection of chemical and biological agents, extraction from cellphones and PDAs, scanning and translation of documents, computer forensics, collection and transmission of biometric data, and digital photography.”

You want kids to get interested in science and engineering? Give them projects like that!

NB: If you are wondering what the title is about and you have a smartphone, just do a search for the app based on the title of the Wired article. Don't ask how I know, I won't tell you if you do. No, I won't apologize for sending you there.

USNS Cesar Chavez?

All the usual subjects are hashing it out at USNIBlog.

What a great ticklefight - check it out.

China - old before rich?

There are many reasons to keep an eye on China as she awakens from centuries of decline - but not all cards are playing their way. Via The Economist, as we've discussed on Midrats and here now and then,

... in the past few years that China is suffering from a demographic problem of a different sort: too low a birth rate. The latest numbers, released on April 28th and based on the nationwide census conducted last year, show a total population for mainland China of 1.34 billion. They also reveal a steep decline in the average annual population growth rate, down to 0.57% in 2000-10, half the rate of 1.07% in the previous decade. The data imply that the total fertility rate, which is the number of children a woman of child-bearing age can expect to have, on average, during her lifetime, may now be just 1.4, far below the “replacement rate” of 2.1, which eventually leads to the population stabilising.

Slower growth is matched by a dramatic ageing of the population. People above the age of 60 now represent 13.3% of the total, up from 10.3% in 2000 (see chart). In the same period, those under the age of 14 declined from 23% to 17%. A continuation of these trends will place ever greater burdens on the working young who must support their elderly kin, as well as on government-run pension and health-care systems. China’s great “demographic dividend” (a rising share of working-age adults) is almost over.
...
Among newborns, there were more than 118 boys for every 100 girls in 2010. This marks a slight increase over the 2000 level, and implies that, in about 20 or 25 years’ time, there will not be enough brides for almost a fifth of today’s baby boys—with the potentially vast destabilising consequences that could have.

There's another article or two on this subject I'll get to later this week. BTW - you really need to suck it up and subscribe to The Economist.

We have yet to see the dual dynamic of too few men WITH too many elderly before. Yes, the future will be "interesting."

So Sal, what are your spiritual gifts?

Just a fun thing to do now and then. I'm not sure what good it does - but why not?

Here's mine. Snarky comments are permitted (yes, I note where leadership is, ahem) - and yes - Skippy and I do have some things in common. Share yours if you wish.

Score	Graph of Score	Spiritual Gift	Statement / Response
21	======================	Helps	12 = 5	40 = 5	68 = 3	96 = 3	124 = 5
19	====================	Encouragement	6 = 3	34 = 5	62 = 1	90 = 5	118 = 5
17	==================	Faith	9 = 5	37 = 5	65 = 1	93 = 1	121 = 5
17	==================	Exhortation	8 = 1	36 = 5	64 = 3	92 = 3	120 = 5
14	===============	Administration	1 = 3	29 = 0	57 = 5	85 = 3	113 = 3
12	=============	Evangelism	7 = 3	35 = 1	91 = 5	119 = 3
11	============	Wisdom	27 = 1	55 = 3	83 = 1	111 = 5	139 = 1
11	============	Apostle	2 = 3	30 = 0	58 = 5	86 = 0	114 = 3
11	============	Pastoring	21 = 5	49 = 0	77 = 5	105 = 1	133 = 0
11	============	Giving	10 = 1	38 = 5	66 = 1	94 = 1	122 = 3
10	===========	Teaching	24 = 3	52 = 1	80 = 3	108 = 3	136 = 0
10	===========	Missionary	19 = 5	47 = 1	75 = 0	103 = 1	131 = 3
10	===========	Discernment	5 = 3	33 = 0	61 = 3	89 = 3	117 = 1
9	==========	Poverty	22 = 1	50 = 1	78 = 1	106 = 3	134 = 3
7	========	Hospitality	13 = 1	41 = 1	69 = 3	97 = 1	125 = 1
7	========	Leadership	16 = 1	44 = 3	72 = 1	100 = 1	128 = 1
7	========	Healing	11 = 3	39 = 1	67 = 1	95 = 1	123 = 1
6	=======	Prophecy	23 = 0	51 = 3	79 = 3	107 = 0	135 = 0
6	=======	Knowledge	15 = 1	43 = 1	71 = 3	99 = 0	127 = 1
6	=======	Writing	28 = 0	56 = 3	84 = 1	112 = 1	140 = 1
3	====	Intercession	14 = 1	42 = 0	70 = 1	98 = 1	126 = 0
3	====	Music	20 = 3	48 = 0	76 = 0	104 = 0	132 = 0
3	====	Mercy	17 = 1	45 = 1	73 = 0	101 = 1	129 = 0
2	===	Miracles	18 = 1	46 = 0	74 = 0	102 = 1	130 = 0
1	==	Craftsmanship	4 = 0	32 = 0	60 = 1	88 = 0	116 = 0
0	=	TonguesSpeaking	26 = 0	54 = 0	82 = 0	110 = 0	138 = 0
0	=	TonguesInterpreting	25 = 0	53 = 0	81 = 0	109 = 0	137 = 0
0	=	Celibacy	3 = 0	31 = 0	59 = 0	87 = 0	115 = 0

The life of a RDML .....

This is not to be snarky - this is simple fact.

Via Tom Ricks's blog,

Gen. Donn Starry (U.S. Army, ret.) warns in his oral history. "As a matter of fact, brigadier generals get treated with much less respect and so on than second lieutenants do in many places. I got much better treatment as a second lieutenant, in many instances, than I did as a brigadier general."(P. 1103, Press On! Selected Works of General Donn A. Starry, Vol. 2, Lewis Sorley, ed.)

It is, from a street cred POV among your peers, to retire as a Bull O6 than as a 1-star...but no one ever expects to retire as a 1-star. Everyone expects to put on the second, at least. But....

If one worries about such things, after you shake someone hand and move along - behind your back would you rather have them ask, "It's a shame he never made Flag..." or "Why didn't he get a second star?"

Of course, I never got past oak leaves - so who am I to judge? I'm not - just stating observable fact.

What type of mother?

To this point I have avoided the twitching and enticing bait of "French-Socialist-Male-S3xual predator" story about that Socialist pig Strauss-Kahn. I don't care if he did or did not sexually assault that maid in NYC - I know the thrice married pig's reputation; he is still a pig

He is no great seducer as some call him. He is a small, insecure, s3xually immature man who abuses his position of power and privelage to chase the physical contact with women he cannot receive on the basis of his character and affection alone. He is a pig - full stop. As a father of four women himself - that just makes it worse.

It is this part of the story that gets me the most. Assuming that all is up-front,

A French writer who claims Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her nine years ago is to file an official complaint, her lawyer has announced.

Tristane Banon previously described the attack, which happened when she was in her early 20s, in a television programme in 2007, when she called Strauss-Kahn, whose name was bleeped out, a "rutting chimpanzee."

She says she consulted a lawyer at the time, but was persuaded not to take action by her mother, a regional councillor in the Socialist party and friend of the Strauss-Kahn family. Banon is goddaughter to Strauss-Kahn's second wife.

She was in her early 20s he was in his mid-50s. Ponder.

I don't know the status of her father - even her wiki page does not mention him - but if that were my daughter, I don't care who the man was or what advice her mother gave. If she came to me after such a thing took place - the police would be the least of the perp's worries. Family friend, relative, best friend, mayor, President, Prime Minister, or Pope does not matter. Right after the police were called, I might extend him to the curtosy of telling him something to the effect that he is lucky we live if nation of laws. I would tell him that in a just world he would die. But we don't live in a just world, so the police will have him - and I'll leave the longer justice to the Almighty.

But let him have a pass? Why? Because he is famous? Because he is powerful? Or worse - for politics?

Amazing.

Now, another woman has been attacked. Most likely, there have been others. Tristane - shame on on your mother for pulling you off point - but BZ for you, older and wiser, for using this opportunity to re-engage.

Bon courage.

Admit it, you're watching it ....

We all have our vices. We all have our little things that we hide from our spouses knowing the shame we would feel if they knew what we were doing .... well, Mrs. Salamander busted me last night.

She caught me watching ..... Game of Thrones. Sigh, she rolled her eyes. It isn't my fault - she knows she married a geek .....

Anyway, some say the best way to deal with your secret shame being made public is to take it out in to the fresh air. So, there.

Hey, while we are at it; here is my favorite character - Tyrion Lanister as played by Peter Dinklage. His brash, blunt, and honest character has outstanding lines - he just about steals the show.

How can you not like that character? Exceptionally well written and Peter Dinklage just knocks it out of the ballpark with depth and nuance.



I think she will let me continue to indulge my vice, as long as she doesn't have to be involved in it. Isn't she a wonderful wife?