The United States - Leading Europe once again

Smartest tools in the shed:

The closure of nearly two thirds of Europe's gas-fired power generation facilities by 2016 will lead to regional price hikes and make outages inevitable, Cap Gemini has warned.

UK households are already feeling the squeeze of soaring energy bills but a particularly cold winter this year could mean that 1970s style blackouts start to become a more regular occurrence again.

The consultancy's annual European Monitoring Centre for Energy Markets briefing encapsulates much of the crisis in European energy policy - one almost entirely of its own making.

Aggressive "Green" (read: "unreliable") energy targets and subsidies for the same have led to the impending shutdown of much of the UK's natural gas fired generation plant as non-economic.  Translation: government subsidies to alternative energy is so enormous that the fuel that powers fully a third of the US grid is withering on the vine in Old Blighty, as electricity prices skyrocket.

Philosopher Kings in action, right there.

But that's not the part that's so shadenfreudalicious.  This is:

Cheap gas in the USA has had a related consequence in Europe, the report notes.

"With this low price, gas has replaced coal as fuel in fossil fuels creating a surplus of coal in the U.S. market. This surplus was exported to Europe resulting in lowering coal prices by 30 per cent between January 2012 and June 2013. This decline has promoted the competitiveness of plants coal in Europe which has resulted in a much better utilization than gas-fired plants".

UK "Green" energy targets combined with the US boom in shale gas has led to where the UK is reverting to coal - with its higher CO2 output.  So "Green" policies designed to reduce carbon emissions have led not just to much higher electrical costs, but to increased carbon emissions.

Philosopher Kings.  But pay no attention, Citizen.  All will be well when these sorts run your health care.  And we have always been at war with Eastasia.  Fortunately, the chocolate ration was just increased ...

Hero of the Day

Today's award goes to a Traffic Warden in the City of Westminster (London, UK) who wrote a parking ticket for Hillary Clinton.  Not only did her people fail to pay the UKP3.30 parking fee, but she'd given up her diplomatic immunity when she stepped down as Secretary of State.

Well done, Mr. Traffic Warden, showing the well-heeled that the laws apply to the great and the meek equally.  And well done to photog Greg Brennan for capturing Mrs. Clinton's arrogance.  Click through to see her security detail try to strongarm the Traffic Warden, pulling the old "Do You Know Who I Am" trick.  Thanks to Photographer Brennan, the whole Internet knows.

[stands] Bravo.

[clap] [clap] [clap]

Take me to bed or lose me forever*

Crash the Wondercat thinks that laptops are for kittehs, not for computers.  And that it's bedtime anyway and he can't sleep on the bed by himself.

* What?  Who did you think might purr that around Camp Borepatch?

Dog is my copilot

Even if it is in a commie motorcycle.

Awesomesauce

Yesterday I put up a post asking for people's experience and opinion.  So far, 17 (!) people left their thoughts.

The Internet sure is a neat place

Having read everyone's ideas, I'm reminded of when I was starting to shoot.  As a POMM (Prisoner Of Mother Massachusetts), I would go shooting at blogshoots and ranges where I could rent different guns.  I shot a lot of different types before I moved to Georgia and bought one.  By then I knew what I wanted.

It seems that it wouldn't hurt to do the same thing with bikes - ride a bunch and see what I like.  Have to figure out how to do that.

But thank you to everyone who left their thoughts.  This is an awesome community.

Fight smarter, not harder

More of Trent Telenko's excellent series at Chicago Boyz, on how the Army's emphasis on engineering and artillery was a better approach in the Pacific that the Marine's frontal assault:

When Japanese tactics changed to elaborate reverse slope, multi-level, and interlocking cave defenses. This doctrinal difference is what lead to the Marine blood bath on Peleliu. Cave warfare was “low operational tempo” combat, a form of siege warfare with extensive field fortifications. Elaborate fortifications required elaborate scouting and elaborate, large scale, limited objective assaults with no real time constraints to yield gains at acceptable losses. It would take Peleliu, Iwo Jima and weeks of further combat on Okinawa, with the 6th Marine Division’s impalement on Sugarloaf, before the USMC’s Assault infantry doctrine yielded to it’s limited objective, methodical mass assault “Processing” tactics on Southern Okinawa in June 1945.

The methodical, artillery-centered, engineer informed, fighting culture of the US Army infantry division was well suited to dealing with Cave Warfare, when there were not senior naval commanders breathing down Army commander’s necks for early Central Pacific Drive Marine-like rapid advances, which happened to General Buckner’s 10th Army on Okinawa.

Only at Peleliu, with the island being declared “secure” and the 81st ID in the “Mop-up phase”, did we get to see a single Pacific Army Division’s organizational culture evolve in isolation to deal with Japanese “Cave Warfare” tactics. Effectively, what the 81st Infantry Division did was develop a “Sandbag Warfare Doctrine” to counter the “Cave Warfare Doctrine” by the Japanese. Each fighting position that the 81st ID occupied on Peleliu had filled sand bags. Sand bags sent up to them by these labor saving improvised aerial tramway’s.

I'd never heard of the aerial tramways, but it is a very clever engineering approach to help move tons of gear right up to the front line in mountainous terrain.

The effect of these aerial tramway delivered sandbags was several fold. First, it took away much of the effectiveness of Japanese snipers and mortars, particularly their 50mm grenade dischargers, in producing a lot of American casualties.

Second, they gave American infantry a protected position to fight from with crew served heavy weapons (machine guns, mortars, light artillery) and artillery forward observers for Japanese counter attacks and infiltrations.

Third, it left American infantry _covered_ positions *closer* to Japanese positions to launch their “Blowtorch and corkscrew” flame/explosive attacks from. The 81st ID — unlike the 6th Marine Division at Sugar Loaf on Okinawa — didn’t have to cross the same ground over and over to get close enough to inflict attrition losses on underground Japanese positions. This was a very important development. At Biak, Leyte, Luzon, Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, flame thrower operators were dead men walking. This resulted in the U.S. Army’s Chemical Warfare Service having to train up a new generation of flamethrower operators for the next operation. This didn’t happen for the US Army after Peleliu. The 81st Infantry Division’s portable flamethrower operators actually survived the campaign. That was unheard of in Pacific Theater combat!

Long and detailed, this is excellent reading if you (like me) are a military history buff.  Had it come to an invasion of the Japanese home islands, it might have been the Army's non-photogenic but practical tactics like these that would have won the day.  Not at all what you normally hear in the histories.

The NSA, backdoors in hardware, and "Smart" gun technology

It appears that the NSA has been working behind the scenes with technology companies to put backdoors into chips and other products, creating a "Security Problem From Hell":

In 2011, General Michael Hayden, who had earlier been director of both the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, described the idea of computer hardware with hidden “backdoors” planted by an enemy as “the problem from hell.” This month, news reports based on leaked documents said that the NSA itself has used that tactic, working with U.S. companies to insert secret backdoors into chips and other hardware to aid its surveillance efforts.

That revelation particularly concerned security experts because Hayden’s assessment is widely held to be true. Compromised hardware is difficult, and often impossible, to detect. Hardware can do things such as access data in ways invisible to the software on a computer, even security software. The possibility that computer hardware in use around the world might be littered with NSA backdoors raises the prospect that other nations’ agencies are doing the same thing, or that groups other than the NSA might find and exploit the NSA’s backdoors. Critics of the NSA say the untraceable nature of hardware flaws, and the potential for building them into many systems, also increases the risk that intelligence agencies that place them will be tempted to exceed legal restrictions on surveillance.

So riddle me this, Gun Control Man: how can any thinking person trust that any "Smart Gun" technology hasn't been backdoored by the Fed.Gov, with a remote RFID kill switch?  Six months ago I would have thought that this was tin foil hat territory; now I look at it and think "plausible".

After all, the BATF ran illegal guns to Mexican drug cartels.  The IRS audited the Obama Administration's enemies.  Journalists are being investigated by the Justice Department under the noxious Sedition Act of 1918, and the Director of National Intelligence and the Director of the NSA have both repeatedly perjured themselves before Congressional Committees charged with overseeing their operations.  The NSA seemingly has subverted the encryption standards used by the entire electronic financial transfer industry.  Communications companies have been told to snoop on their customers and hand over encryption keys, and have been muzzled by classified National Security Letters issued by secret courts.  And now there are charges that hardware may have been trojaned by the US Government.

And we should trust this "Smart Gun" technology is above boards?  Bullet proof (so to speak), with no way around it for the G Men?

Pull the other one.  It has bells on it.

What's old is new again

Back then it took a Depression to trigger the march.  Today, all it took was the Government.

Ooh rah, Ma'am

The Greatest Generation is not yet done.

See Dad. See Dad ride a Harley.

Ride, Dad, ride!  Glad you took off your necktie when you got home from work.  And your wingtips have a heel, so they're, errr, "approved" footwear. But it's 1958, and so who needs a helmet or eye protection?  After all, Mom took out a big Insurance policy when you got the bike, right?

Dayum, that's a lot of text in that advert.  From Dad's Vintage Ads, which is aweome.

Help me, Obi-Wan Intarwebz. You're my only hope.

While Princess Leia didn't ride a bike, I do.  And since the V-Strom is out, I'm looking around for something different.  I need something bigger than my Honda Rebel 250 (the kids will do a Cage Match to see who gets it; #1 Son is bigger, but #2 Son has that JROTC bayonet training, so it'll be close).  I want something that I can cruise several hundred miles in a day, so that Uncle Jay and I can go to watch the freaks at Key West, or go shoot up a range at Dallas or something.

I'm looking at baggers now, because a bunch of y'all left something like 800 comments saying I should look at them (and thank you for that!).  Currently what I'm seeing is sort of like this:

Honda Shadow 750.

Yamaha VStar 650.

Harley Sporter 883.

Suzuki Intruder.

Kawasaki Vulcan.

There must be other options, but the V-Star was WAY too tall for a bike that heavy.  I'm looking for something that a six foot guy can be flat footed when he stops.  I expect weight is less important than height, but that's a guess.

I doubt that I'd ever go more than 500 miles in a day, and likely half that.  Roswell GA to Myrtle Beach is a hair under 400 miles; Roswell to JAX to meet up with Uncle Jay is a bit less.

So what do you say?  Comment away.

This is why Democrats are hypocrites

They keep telling poor people that the Democrats are "looking out for them."  Good and hard, as it turns out.  The GOP may be cold hearted in that they don't care if people have insurance or not, but at least they didn't make things worse.

Hat tip: Blue.

Get a job in IT Security

Via Drudge, the market for Internet security specialists is booming:

Most cyber expertise remains in the private sector where companies are seeing an steep increase in spending on security products and services.

Depending on the cyber threat, a variety of firms are bidding for cyber talent. Google is currently advertising 129 IT security jobs, while defense companies such as Lockheed Martin Corp and BAE Systems are looking to hire in this area.

Anti-virus maker Symantec Corp is also doing good business. "The threat environment is exploding," Chief Executive Steve Bennett told Reuters in an interview in July.

The perception of an increased threat, has also led to explosive demand for the best talent.

The U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics says the number of Information Technology security roles in the U.S. will increase by some 22 percent in the decade to 2020, creating 65,700 new jobs. Experts say it is a similar situation globally, with salaries often rising 5-7 percent a year.

Remember, you don't need to get a University degree for this.  You can teach yourself security for small money.  And with the demand going up, even older workers looking to switch fields will have a shot.  The HR drones are less likely to weed out anyone if they can't get the positions filled.

Felix Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor

My back is really putting a dent in blogging, and so I won't do the background on the composer that I usually do.  It's a shame, as Mendelssohn lived an interesting, if short, life.  This is his most famous work.

My back hurts

A lot, as it it was hard to get out of bed this morning.  Blogging will be late today.

Suzuki V-Strom 650 review

After taking some time to digest the ride (and make a pot pie - from scratch, yes) here are my impressions of the bike.    Note that these aren't arrived at via any sort of left-brained metrics, they're all right-brained impressions.  Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited, do not remove tag under penalty of law.

The Good

There's a lot going for this bike.  That's what attracted me to it in the first place, duh.

Size

This is an intermediate size between what I have (Honda Rebel 250) and a big cruising bike like a Harley or a Goldwing (or a Yamaha Boulevard, which looks pretty interesting).  Quite frankly the reason I wanted my first bike to be pretty small was because the size factor was less intimidating.  While more intimidating (perhaps the wrong word, there, but you get my drift) than a Rebel, it's no where near what a big old Hog would be.

Versatile

This bike will do long distance touring, with plenty of attach points for baggage carriers.  It will do sport rides, like Tail Of The Dragon (that's why they call it a "Sport Touring Bike").  It will do commutes in stop and go traffic (ask me how I know).  It will (I'm told) do some off-road as well, although I'd think you'd want some different tires.  Basically, it's a what-do-you-want-to-do-today sort of bike: hit the Interstate to the beach, head to the hills for the twisties, maybe seek out some places the Harleys can't follow.

Easy handling

My little Rebel will go on the highway, and I've even had it up to 70 MPH.  But the wind blast is pretty harsh, and will wear you out if you do it for a long time.  The V-Strom has a much more highway friendly design, and the one I rode only had a sort of mini-faring.  Put a bigger front faring and a bigger windscreen, and the miles will melt away.

Great Mileage

Today's ride took me from Roswell GA to Marietta via surface highways, up Interstate 575 to Jasper, across the foothill twisty roads to Interstate 75, back south I-75 to Marietta to the downtown square (circle until you find a parking space because the Marietta Town Fathers don't seem to believe in Motorcycle parking).  Lots of different types of driving including stop and go, 170 miles in all.  I used 3 gallons of gas, so I was getting north of 55 MPG.  On something that cruises happily at 80 MPH.

The Not So Good

Every design is a compromise, and this bike is no different.

Lordy, this is a tall bike

I'm taller than average at a hair over 6 feet, but this bike was a challenge for me.  Even in my Tony Lamas (which are actually pretty sweet riding boots) with their 1 1/2" heels I was on tip toes when the bike was stopped.  It was quite uncomfortable (not to mention intimidating considering the weight - that will be next).  I'm told that you can have the suspension lowered, but this would need to be dropped by a minimum of two inches - and that's for someone two inches taller than average.  I actually think that this is the biggest knock against the bike.

Lordy, this is a heavy bike

The Rebel's dry weight is 300 lbs, which makes it pretty hard to drop.  Two guys could pretty easily lift it completely off the ground.  The V-Strom 650 clocks in at a cool 900 (!) pounds.  Add luggage and a passenger and you're looking at 1200.  And this is a mid sized bike.

[blink] [blink]

Quite honestly, I can't say that this is a knock against the bike, it's likely a knock against me - at least until I have some more riding under my belt.  But remember the bike's height conspires to make things wobbly, and with 900 lbs if it leans over it's going down.

UPDATE: See the end of the post.

The riding position is uncomfortable

This is very subjective, but the seating is straight up in the saddle, just like you were on a horse.  In a way that was comfortable - my back has been hurting for a few days but the upright posture felt pretty good.  What didn't feel good was all my weight pushing straight down on my, err, loins.  Four hours after I turned the bike back in, "The Boys" are still mad at me, if you catch my drift.  No doubt a different seat would fix this, but would also almost certainly add more to the height problem.

The Bottom Line

I'm not going to get one.  I may try a cruiser style - the local Harley dealer has "Demo Day" tomorrow.  While I don't want to go up to an even heavier bike, if it's lower to the ground (i.e. both feet flat on the ground) then that may be more comfortable.

The search continues, the game's afoot.  Onward!

UPDATE 12 October 2013 22:32: Both Chris Byrne and Sevesteen in the comments point out that my weight numbers are whack.  What caused the confusion is that I read the GVW off of the motorcycle side plate.  I think (on retrospect) that this is the total *loaded* weight that the bike is set to handle.  IOW, using Chris Bytne's stated 480 lbs dry weight, you have another 430 or so lbs of rider plus luggage.

That said, this is WAY heavier than my Honda, which was my point.  If it weren't so tall, that might not me a problem.  Chris says that you can lower the bike by around 2" (after market seat and suspension adjustment), which might address the issue.  But remember, I'm 2" taller than average (and Chris is even bigger than I am).  Suzuki clearly did not design this for the mass market.  Or they did, and they missed this point.

Scenes from the V-Strom

I'm not sure why but I seem to be much more tuned into car driver's douchebaggery when I'm on the highway. Just because the bike cruises smoothly and effortlessly at 80 MPH doesn't stop Sumdood in a BMW from merging from the right and cutting me off.

I-575 takes you up pretty much due northwards to the Georgia mountains. At Jasper I discovered that seemingly the entire population of Atlanta had converged on the Apple Festival. Bailing out, I found this:




It's a one lane bridge. Better view here:




Better view of the bike here:




The weather is great and so the bikers are out in force. They're universally nice to a fellow biker, especially the couple in Jasper who had just ridden back from Kentucky on their very nice Harley tourer. They gave me directions to the "twisties" that took me west back to I-75.

So far, I've had highway, twisties, stop and go, and city riding. It's been a good test and I'll put up my impressions later. Biggest one so far is Lordy, this a
Is a tall bike.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Internet is a wonderful place

Yesterday I got an email from reader and blogger JP, saying he was in town and would like to meet up.  It turns out that he's a pretty serious security guy, and so we security power geeked through dinner.  That's always fun, but doing it with someone you met through Mr. Gore's more excellent Information Superhighway was the awesomesauce.

BTW, JP, this book is worth your while:

I think that there's quite a lot you could do with this to automate Andy Jacquith's classic:

I gave a seminar with Andy once, and he's one of the most scary smart security guys I've ever met.  And a super nice guy to boot.

(did I mention the security power geeking?)

Sasha Mullins and Motorodeo - Two Wheels

This isn't Country Music, it's what we used to call Southern Rock back in the day (hey, it has a fiddle).  But think expansively.  Don't get pidgeon holed.  Keep an open mind.

Especially if it's a cracking excuse for some southern rock with a bunch of biker chicks.



You're welcome.

Sasha Mullins blogs at The Chrome Cowgirl.

Been busy

Report later. But man, this bike is bigger than the Honda.