In The News Today...

Quote: beachbumbabs

From a worldview, it's my understanding that the fact 2/3 of Americans repudiate Trump is the only thing giving them hope.

Its become the national pastime.

>Inciting war with NK.
They are aggressive, hostile and the weapons gap is closing. Why let them grow stronger? Look at our Navy's performance lately?

>Rejecting Paris Accords.
Don't know what they are about but Paris, Texas is relevant, Paris, France probably is not.

>Dumping NATO and rebuking other nations.
Might as well dump NATO, no one wants to fund it or fund their own defense.

>Cozying up to Putin.
He is his boss.

>Reneging or withdrawing from trade agreements.
Might as well, they were not in our favor to begin with.

>Discrediting the State Department.
I'm sure they deserve it.

>Discrediting our foreign operatives and intl police forces.
What have they done for us?
>Passing foreign Intel in the Oval Office and via Twitter to common enemies.
Heck, when the Prime Minister met with the Ukrainian President, the interpreter was a Russian spy.

>Pushing the radical Israeli agenda to the detriment of the Middle East.
Once Israel got away with the September eleventh attacks,they can get away with anything.

> treasonous moron
I would think more of a buffoon

Seeing things in perspective:
What about Andrew Jackson's war in violation of the supreme court decision?
What about sending the fleet halfway round the world and then telling Congress to vote the money to bring them home?
What about sending the Pacific Fleet from San Diego to the hardship post of Pearl Harbor and relieving of command the admiral who protested it was provocative and unsafe for the fleet?
What about court martialing Billy Mitchell who said straight out 'the next war America fights will be with the Empire of Japan' and who accused the General Staff of negligence bordering on treason for not developing air power.
What about the Remember The Maine when it was known to have been an internal explosion, not an external and therefore hostile one.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Inciting war with NK.

So, you are saying NK was peaceful to the USA until Trump took office?

Quote: beachbumbabs

Inciting war with NK.

What fun is it for us to have all those cool military toys and never get to play with them?

Quote:

BRUSSELS — Russian submarines have dramatically stepped up activity around undersea data cables in the North Atlantic, part of a more aggressive naval posture that has driven NATO to revive a Cold War-era command, according to senior military officials.

The apparent Russian focus on the cables, which provide Internet and other communications connections to North America and Europe, could give the Kremlin the power to sever or tap into vital data lines, the officials said. Russian submarine activity has increased to levels unseen since the Cold War, they said, sparking hunts in recent months for the elusive watercraft.

All because we lost Net Neutrality.

Just kidding. Still pretty sure Russia does not act like a friend.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-submarines-are-prowling-around-vital-undersea-cables-it’s-making-nato-nervous/ar-BBHaCLC?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

Quote: rxwine

All because we lost Net Neutrality.

Just kidding. Still pretty sure Russia does not act like a friend.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-submarines-are-prowling-around-vital-undersea-cables-it’s-making-nato-nervous/ar-BBHaCLC?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

In the age of satellites, I'm a little surprised that transatlantic cables are so important.

Quote: JimRockford

In the age of satellites, I'm a little surprised that transatlantic cables are so important.

I was wondering about that. I wonder how much data is passing through, as compared to satellites. Is it additional or backup data? And can our satellites handle it alone. Or perhaps there is an issue of "mass satellite killers" which makes its existence primary or secondary security. Nobody likes to be without backup systems when it's important stuff.

Questions. questions.

Edit -- it could also be connected to underwater transmission security, which is related to transmissions among subs? How deep can satellites transmit into the oceans?

satellites have to do a great deal of handshaking since signal quality varies even in geostationary orbits. Just look at sat phones and recall perhaps the S/V Nina that was lost while transiting the Tasman Sea. Texas Equsearch as a routine matter looks at all phones starting with 30 days before the disappearance. In looking at the Iridius satellite phone there was a seven hundred mile ellipse of error in gps positioning and there was a voice message that had been sent by the sat phone but not transmitted due to signal quality being degraded below the level of service. (Its sort of like having a message sent by one party but the other party not hearing it because there is too much static on the line). Macau has good satellite service, just ask the Chinese Military who monitor ALL satellite traffic from there.
"Wiretapping" a satellite is easy, so is sending false and misleading time signals.

Military traffic often goes by cable but its often sent at 75 baud which is a joke. Ivey Bells was the name of the project that involved tapping an undersea cable to the heavily militarized Kamchatka Peninsula to obtain truthful telemetry data on rocket launches rather than the Russian radio transmitted and intentionally misleading data.

In the Sixties the Russians did cut the Transatlantic Cable.

Russian submarines have been playing in Swedish waters for decades in a cat and mouse game of technology testing. You can be sure that if they are gathering near cables, its a false goal.

Amtrak

Engineer made comment about speed six seconds before derailment but took no action regarding the controls though did appear to brace for impact.

Train speed at time of derailment appears to have been 78 mph.

So far I've not heard anything that shows how far prior to the curve that 30mph zone begins. We've all seen those "curve ahead 30mph" yellow signs on the highway but I don't know how far "ahead" is on that block of track. I have an unreliable report that the speed limit sign was two miles from the start of the curve but one wonders if the sign was seen and if it had been seen is two miles sufficient warning to retard the throttle and apply the brakes?

I would think that those six seconds should have been used to do emergency braking though obviously six seconds ain't gonna slow things down,.

Quote: JimRockford

In the age of satellites, I'm a little surprised that transatlantic cables are so important.

I used to be be, but not anymore. Cable is huge. We had a lot unused after outfits like Global Crossing laid so much in the late 1990s.
I figure a few things:

1. Cable is faster. A geostationary satellite is around 22,000 miles up, making a 44,000 round trip without the cable. The longest a cable would theoretically be is 12,500 miles. It will be a little more since it is not direct, but the satellite has to go thru the same cables on the ground to get to the satellite, so call that a wash. 4 times the distance gets to be huge for transfer rates and really huge if you are in finance where nanoseconds count.

2. Satellite space is limited. We can only put so many up there. Cable can keep being laid.

3. Satellite signals easier to disrupt or tap.

4. Undersea cable is cheaper.



We will use cable probably forever. Don't think the USA doesn't tap it, either.

Argentine officials may have received substantial bribes in overhaul of submarine.

Bribes to replace battery cells rather than replace an entire battery as well as bribes to use cheaper cells of unknown quality control than those that were being paid for. Basically its a 'counterfeit parts' situation but airplanes and submarines are structures wherein counterfeit parts that fail often render the counterfeiting impossible to prove.