I am grateful for more than I can express: family, faith, friends, country, health, the opportunities of life, and above all my sweetheart, Sandra. God bless us, everyone. ..bruce w..
I haven’t written much about ‘Climategate’ because so many others are doing such a great job (for example, see here, here, and here). But this video (hat tip to Ace of Spades) pretty much sums things up (and with a catchy tune, too!). ..bruce w..
(Hat tip to Blue Crab Boulevard.) I certainly remember Democrats and the mainstream media (the same thing, really) ranting about the millions of jobs lost under Bush, not to mention the climbing deficits. Funny how quiet they are now. I’m not sure we will see unemployment under Obama get back down to the highest point it reached under Bush (a little over 6%), nor will we ever see the deficit get back down to the highest point it reached under Bush, to wit (via the Heritage Foundation):
Things have gone so well since the Democrats took over Congress (starting in 2006, remember) and the White House. ..bruce w..
The sad thing is, it’s true. An electric car is, in effect, a NIMBY-mobile. Unless you’ve got your own clean energy source (e.g., a large solar panel farm on your property — and here’s a shout-out to Jim Hamerly), you’re likely still impacting the environment — just at a distance. ..bruce w..
That's Darren on the right (his sister Deirdre is hugging him)
I’ve been running around since early this morning and didn’t get a chance to put up our annual Veterans Day post listing the vets in our respective families. Here it is.
=============
Bruce Webster:
- CPL Darren Green, USMC (active) — just returned from a tour in Helmand Province, Afghanistan (see photo above) [nephew]
- CPL Jon A. Webster, USMC (active) — served in al Rutbah, Iraq; now stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA [son]
- Heather Harris, US Army National Guard (former) — [daughter]
- Greg Barsic, USMC (former), USCG (active) — currently serving in the US Coast Guard in San Diego [son-in-law]
- Frank Wallace, USMC (former) — [married to my niece Deirdre, the one hugging Darren in the photo above]
- Brad Poeltler, USN (ret.) — former Naval aviator in the F-14 RAG [brother-in-law]
- Robert Wendt, USN (ret.) – former Navy pilot [former brother-in-law]
- Bill Lowell, US Army (former) — [former brother-in-law]
- John A. Webster, USN (ret.) — served in both WW II and Vietnam [my father]
- James Francis Webster, USN — served in WW II [my paternal grandfather]
- John Silas Fickes, CSM, USN — served in WW I, Mexican War (1920), and WW II [my maternal grandfather]
- John William Fickes, 1st Sgt., Co. A, PA Militia, 8th Reg. Infantry — served in Spanish-American War [my great-grandfather]
- James Edward Taylor, Pvt. Co. D, II PA Volunteer Infantry — Civil War [my great-great-grandfather]
Bruce Henderson:
- Andy Henderson, USN (active) — [nephew] Currently at sea with the forward deployed USS George Washington out of Yokosuka, Japan.
- Bruce Henderson, USMC (former) — Yes, I was a Jar Head
- Peter Anderson, USMC — My dear departed uncle Peter served with Marine Intel during Vietnam
- Jim Zimmerman, Illinois National Guard (former) — My uncle Jim served 2 tours in the National Guard
- Ian Henderson, RAF — [my dear departed father] RAF pilot who served the crown during the Battle of Britain as well the far east as a flight leader. He lied about his age to join the flight corps and was a decorated Ace for combat action.
- Ron Henderson, RAF — [uncle] RAF radio man,
- Robert Zimmerman, USN — My dear departed step-grandfather served in the US Navy during WW2
- Howard Martin, USN — My biological grandfather was a pilot who died in WWII when my mother was just a child
God bless them all, and God bless America. ..bruce w..
On November 5th, the UK Guardian revealed that members of the UN atomic watchdog agency, the IAEA, were seeking clarification from Iran on evidence that Iranian scientists had come into possession of highly advanced, proven working weapon designs. This design, if they do in fact have it, is the same design developed by Pakistan and dramatically shortens the time it would take for Iran to assemble their refined fuel into a bomb. Furthermore, this design is already weaponized. If true, Iran will have gone directly from concept to something that can effectively be delivered by missile. Just how did Iran come into possession of an advanced design?
Building A Working Bomb
Building a working nuclear weapon is deceptively complex. The goal is to get enough of the nuclear material, either highly enriched Uranium or Plutonium together that they form a run-away chain reaction, at which point there is a release of energy. Early US designs, when we first invented the atomic bomb, involved separating portions of the material and forcing them together using explosives.
While this may sound simple, the explosives must be very precisely made, and must fire at very specific times with a very low margin for error, measured in less than 1/1000th of a second. The amount of circuitry and support electronics to make this happen caused early US designs to be the size of a Volkswagen Bug. In fact many nuclear weapons programs start with a large, complex “gadget”, such as what it is assumed the North Koreans have tried several times to detonate without any real success. These devices have no practical use as a weapon, unless you were to load one into a shipping container and send it to your target. They won’t fit on a missile, and you need a very large bomber to carry them.
Enter in this suspected Iranian “advanced design”. From the UK Guardian:
According to a dossier prepared by the IAEA, Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of a “two-point implosion” device that could enable Iran to eventually install small nuclear warheads on its ballistic missiles. The article reported on speculation that the Pakistani nuclear proliferator A.Q. Khan or a Russian weapons expert may have helped the Iranians to master the synchronized high explosive detonations necessary to build the warhead.
A.Q. Khan is the father of the Pakistani bomb, which they derived from a Chinese design, which was itself derived from blueprints stolen from US weapons labs over the 1980s and 1990s. It has long been rumored the Khan was willing to sell the design and supporting information for the right price to any state or non-state cartel willing to pay.
This design is radically different than the typical large, complex gadget that most countries explode as their first weapon. It was designed specifically to be delivered by missile, and has many improvements such as reduced complexity in the detonation circuitry. It is easier to build, easier to fuel and easier to deliver than anything Iran could have come up with on its own in the next 20 years.
From the IAEA report cited by the Guardian, the weapons design is progressing steadily in Iranian labs. Long before the first nuclear detonation takes place at the test range, a series of smaller tests are conducted on the components of the bomb itself. Atomic bombs work by igniting high explosives in a specific pattern that causes a set of shock waves to compress radioactive metal (called a “pit”) into a tight shape. This compression places enough of the atoms in close proximity that a run away chain reaction forms, resulting in a nuclear explosion.
To get to a working device, engineers must translate the design into real world mechanical and electronic components, and test them. The detonators for the high explosives must fire in correct sequence at the correct time, and the casing for the radioactive components must survive the explosion long enough for the pit to be compressed. This activity, the building of unfueled warhead devices and exploding them to determine if they are working as designed, is precisely what the IAEA has determined was taking place.
Impact of Negotiations With Iran
This report from the IAEA, if accurate, describes an Iranian weapons program that is in full research and development mode, actively seeking to perfect their weapon design and possibly detonate a nuclear explosion before the world community can stop them. The Iranians are masters of stalling for time, and for brinksmanship, but this has every hallmark of a program that is working to their first live test in the near future. The time remaining to remove Iran’s capability to threaten the world with atomic weapons is quickly drawing to a close. Make no mistake, a nuclear Iran will likely set off a middle east arms race where multiple wealthy nations expend their petrodollars to maintain parity with their neighbors.
The Bottom line
If Iranian engineers are testing static and un-fueled devices, they are very close to being ready to conduct their first test. Whatever action the world is going to take, diplomatic or military, must happen soon – or the world will have to cope with a nuclear armed, fundamental islamic state.
…can’t trust that day. Or the weekend, apparently. Video above courtesy of Gateway Pundit. Not what George Lucas had in mind, I dare say.
Backlash? What backlash? Once again, the “Serenity” trailer as a metaphor for the growing conservative rebellion. “No. They’re not going to see this coming.”
The poster below has been showing up all over the ’sphere for some weeks now, most lately over at Instapundit:
The British press — which seems to be doing a much better job of covering the Obama Administration than the US press — notes the growing hints of wistfulness for Bush, even among Democrats. Heck, at this point, I miss Bill Clinton — words I never thought I’d say. ..bruce w..
As most of you remember, I keep a close eye on the state of the Sun, as it is my theory that its variable nature has been the driving force for many events in human history. This is even more the case today with arguments over climate trends and heating or cooling – could the Sun, which is the only source of energy (except for nuclear) for the whole planet really be the major factor in if we freeze or bake?
More importantly, for the last few years the Sun has been in a deep solar minimum, with long periods of time passing between a few anemic sun spots, and almost no solar flares. In addition the total output of the sun has been dropping for the past few years, with 2008 being one of the lowest in the past few decades – less energy reaching the earth.
Sun watchers were cheered recently when the first healthy, vigorous sunspot group appeared, possibly pointing to the long expected upswing in solar cycle 24 (the current cycle). The upswing is long overdue (at least 2 years).
Now this thing emerges, Sunspot 1030 (all sunspots get numbers). Why is this little spot such a problem?
It’s backwards!
Each solar cycle, the polarity (which side is black vs white on the above image) reverses, all cycle 24 spots should be white on the left and black on the right.
What does this mean, it means that solar physicists and amateurs like me are now arguing about it all. This is either a throwback to cycle 23 or a cycle 25 spot showing up early. Either way it’s another indication that our Sun is in a normal part of its variable cycle that we have not (in our limited history) seen before.
You know, the massive stimulus that was absolutely necessary to keep unemployment from rising above 8.0%? Kind of missed the target, didn’t it?
Anyone want to guess what unemployment will be in November 2010? November 2012? I’m willing to bet $1000 that it won’t be down to 7.0% and 5.5%, respectively, as the Obama economic team said it would be with the stimulus package. In fact, I strongly suspect it won’t even be down to the projected “without the recovery plan” levels of 9.0% and 6.0%.
The chart comes from Innocent Bystanders, via Ace of Spades.
UPDATE: Campaign Spot on NRO reminds us of what Pres. Obama said about the stimulus last February:
And the most — the biggest measure of success is whether we stop contracting and shedding jobs, and we start growing again. Now, you know, I don’t have a crystal ball, and as I said, this is an unprecedented crisis. But my hope is that after a difficult year — and this year is going to be a difficult year — that businesses start investing again, they start making decisions that, you know, in fact, there’s money to be made out there; customers — or consumers start feeling that their jobs are stable and safe, and they start making purchases again.
So, what are the things that the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress are doing to encourage “businesses [to] start investing again” and to help “consumers start feeling that their jobs are stable and safe”? Massive deficits? Massive tax increases? Massive government bureaucracies? Increased regulation? Government expansion into the private sector? Yeah, that will encourage both businesses and consumers. ..bruce w..
Henderson Genealogy and Family History
Ruins of the Henderson farm at Rhian, Caithness
Folks who know me understand that I have been very proud of my Father’s Scottish heritage. For the past several years I have been working to discover and record as much of my family’s history and genealogy as I can.
This effort has taken me to Caithness in the north of Scotland twice, the the ancient ancestral home of Knockfin. This has even gotten me in front of the BBC cameras to film an episode of the program “Landward” outlining the research project.
This is more than just a genealogy effort of who begat whom, it is an effort to understand the places and ways that they lived and the role they played, large and small, in history. Since our start a small but growing group have been “collecting cousins”. When we find people in the modern day that connect with the family, we share all of the history and data we have to date, and invite them to participate. Some of them would rather be left alone, and we respect that. Most however are thrilled and in their sharing we are slowly building up a better idea of the events, places and people.
This project is very much an effort of the modern age. With cousins and participants on 3 continents and multiple countries, we share most of our information over the internet. We are also using DNA testing to help define and refine our history, as what we can trace through records ends in the mid 1700s. Our goal is to contact as many descendants of our common “progenitor” as we can, and offer them our shared history, inhopes it will never be lost or forgotten again.
Some random facts from the project:
The Henderson family originates (at least the earliest records we can find) from the Berriedale area of Caithness in the mid 1700s. A croft farmed by William Henderson with his wife Ann Sultherland is listed as “Knockfin, Berriedale” and his sons William, James and Angus. By 1820 or so, but William (son) and Angus are no longer in Caithness, and we assume they left for North America or Australia.
The common progenitors are James Henderson and Mary Sutherland whose croft house at Rhian (now in ruins) was the home to 7 children. His oldest son William is part of the family tree of scottish author Neil M. Gunn. All of the cousins we have found thus far are descendants of this couple.
The family tree includes soldiers who died in every major conflict since 1850, minsters and missionaries, crofters and fishermen. The first to attend college was my great grandfather Reverend Adam C. Henderson who attended the University of Glasgow in 1867 before becoming a minster of the Free Church. There was also a lady named Henrietta Henderson who was a missionary with the China Inland Mission, and spent her life bringing Christ to China. This included 4 years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. After her release she returned to China less than a year later and stood by her work until the Chinese communists finally drove her and the rest of the missionaries from the country through punishment, imprisonment and starvation.
Now I am happy to say that thanks to the help of my good friend Mr Bruce Webster, I have created a separate Blog to track all of our research and work. It’s name: Ramscraigs – A Caithness Story