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Now, a spy plane that can be flown with or without a pilot!
A new intelligence and surveillance aircraft that falls into the category of an Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) with its ability to be flown robotically or with a human pilot on board was unveiled recently.
It is claimed that the Firebird will allow the U.S. military to simultaneously gather real-time high-definition video, view infrared imagery, use radar and eavesdrop on communications, reports the Daily Mail.
Incredibly, it has an interface like a memory stick that can be plugged into a PC without the need for additional software.
Measuring 34ft-long and 9.7ft-high, the twin-tailed plane can reach a maximum altitude of 30,000ft and has a maximum flying time of between 24 and 40 hours, depending on its configuration.
Its wing span is 65ft and it has a pushed-propeller at the rear of its fuselage.he Firebird, which performed its first flight in February 2010, was designed and built in California’s Mojave Desert by Scaled Composites and unveiled yesterday by U.S. aero defence firm Northrop Grumman.
The aircraft was designed with the certainty of cuts in U.S. defence spending in mind.
“Firebird addresses future budgetary constraints by combining the best of our piloted and unmanned systems,” said Paul Meyer, a spokesman for Northrop Grumman.
Rick Crooks, Firebird program manager, described it as an adaptable system that is highly affordable because of the number of different missions that can be accomplished in a single flight.
The Firebird will be demonstrated in public from May 23 to June 3. It is currently unclear how much it will cost. (ANI)
Forbes Predicts U.S. Gold Standard Within 5 Years
A return to the gold standard by the United States within the next five years now seems likely, because that move would help the nation solve a variety of economic, fiscal, and monetary ills, Steve Forbes predicted during an exclusive interview this week with HUMAN EVENTS.
“What seems astonishing today could become conventional wisdom in a short period of time,” Forbes said.
Such a move would help to stabilize the value of the dollar, restore confidence among foreign investors in U.S. government bonds, and discourage reckless federal spending, the media mogul and former presidential candidate said. The United States used gold as the basis for valuing the U.S. dollar successfully for roughly 180 years before President Richard Nixon embarked upon an experiment to end the practice in the 1970s that has contributed to a number of woes that the country is suffering from now, Forbes added.
If the gold standard had been in place in recent years, the value of the U.S. dollar would not have weakened as it has and excessive federal spending would have been curbed, Forbes told HUMAN EVENTS. The constantly changing value of the U.S. dollar leads to marketplace uncertainty and consequently spurs speculation in commodity investing as a hedge against inflation. Read more…
Multiple vortex forming over Northern America
There is an upper level low pressure system vortex storm forming of East Coast of US. It’s an occluded front with a low pressure of 29.29hg or 992mb. The winds are rotating the system counterclockwise. In previous post we gave some possible explanation of the situation and we gave some notes about polar cyclones, arctic storms, nor’eastern storms and explanation of Coriolis effect.
The upper level low pressure systems are important to forecasting and can dramatically alter one’s forecast. Upper level lows can occur in association with a mid-latitude cyclone or may begin without the aid of a mid-latitude cyclone. Upper level lows without the aid of a surface low can develop when air flows over a mountain range, in association with an upper level short wave, or in Read more…
Our Fear-Based Society and the Resultant Loss of Liberty
What do the Patriot Act, X-ray scanners and “enhanced” pat downs at airports, our new healthcare system (I hate calling it “Obamacare” because he’s just a puppet like all Presidents), Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” and all other government programs have in common? They’re all sold to us by politicians as a means to keep us safe: safe from terrorists, safe from the bad insurance companies who will uninsure you when you get sick, safe from economic hardships.
Notice, if you will, that these sort of programs get passed by our government when something bad happens that affects the psyche of the entire US. 9/11 happens and we get the PATRIOT Act, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and a host of other anti-liberty, supposedly pro-safety, laws and agencies; the Christmas Day underwear bomber detonates a small bomb setting himself ablaze and we get body scanners and “enhanced” pat downs at airports; the economy hits the skids and it’s the perfect time to pass sweeping healthcare “reform” because everyone’s concerned they will lose their job and their healthcare.
As Rahm Emmanuel famously said, “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.”
However, I would argue Ben Franklin’s perspective is the healthy one. In 1818, he wrote: “They willing to give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety, deserve neither and will lose both.”
Benjamin Franklin was a wise man; a student of history. He studied — as all the founders did — the toll this forfeiture of liberty for Read more…
Is our debt to China a national security risk?
China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt (with estimated holdings of $1.16 trillion) — and, according to a newly proposed U.S. military spending bill, this constitutes a national security concern for America.
The 2012 Defense Authorization Bill proposed Monday by Rep. Howard McKeon, the California Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, includes a section on China. Why would China feature in a 2012 military budget? The answer is leverage. As the AFP noted, the question the bill poses is whether “Beijing could draw a military advantage from its status as a major U.S. creditor.”
There is some precedent for this concern. In early 2010, as Reuters reported, senior Chinese military officials urged that China sell some U.S. government bonds as a punishment of sorts for Washington having sold arms to Taiwan (although the threat was not Read more…
Spying on U.S Citizens — Uncle Sam turns his multi-billion dollar espionage network on U.S Citizens
Alexander Higgins, Contributing Writer
Activist Post
A series of previously classified documents obtained by The Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy reveals that spy operation against U.S citizens here in the homeland have spiked massively over the last year and so has the government’s cost to cover up their plethora of illegal activities.
But first a little background to explain how America has arrived to this point in the first place.
The Executive Branch of the US Government has found a loophole in the legal system that has effectively abolished the Constitution by allowing our entire bill of rights to be suspended at will. This probably best explains it: Read more…
Poverty spikes to record highs in US
The number of American people living in poverty has soared to record-high levels, with African Americans suffering the bulk of the economic hardship in the US, reports say. Read more…
Record wildlife die-offs reported in Northern Rockies
SALMON, Idaho — A record number of big-game animals perished this winter in parts of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming from a harsh season of unusually heavy snows and sustained cold in the Northern Rockies, state wildlife managers say.
“Elk, deer and moose — those animals are having a pretty tough time,” said Wyoming Game and Fish biologist Doug Brimeyer.
Snow and frigid temperatures in pockets of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming arrived earlier and lingered longer than usual, extending the time that wildlife were forced to forage on low reserves for scarce food, leading more of them to starve.
Based on aerial surveys of big-game herds and signals from radio-collared animals, experts are documenting high mortality among offspring of mule deer, white-tailed deer and pronghorn antelope.
This comes as big-game animals enter the last stretch of a period from mid-March through early May that is considered critical for survival.
Wildlife managers estimate die-offs in the tens of thousands across thousands of square miles that span prairie in northeastern Read more…
Scores flee homes as surging Mississippi nears record level
Houses have been engulfed by water in Memphis, Tennessee. Photo: Getty ImagesTourists gathered and gawkers snapped photos of the rising Mississippi River, even as more residents were told to flee their homes and the river’s crest edged towards Memphis in Tennessee.
US officials went door-to-door on Sunday, warning about 240 people to get out before the river reached its expected peak on Tuesday.
In all, residents in more than 1300 homes have been told to go, and about 370 people were staying in shelters.
The Mississippi spared Kentucky and north-west Tennessee catastrophic flooding, but some low-lying towns and farmland along the Read more…
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