The waiting game

I observed that he sat frequently for half and hour on end, with knitted brows and an abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his hand when I mentioned it. “Data! Data! Data!” he cried impatiently. “I can’t make bricks without clay.”

Sherlock Holmes "The Copper Beeches" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

By now, you've no doubt run across the downright gleeful coverage of the mainstream press of the alleged shooting of 16 people by an American soldier in Kandahar; complete with bloody footage on CNN, lots of talk about reprisals and Mr Barack Hussein Obama once again mobilising an all-out apology to the corrupt Kharzi government.

As for me, I have nothing to say on the matter until I find out the man's name and at least something about his motives.   In other words, something a bit more solid.

Speculation without facts is less than pointless.

Lord Vader, call your service

The Mark II

The US Army is looking into new helmet designs to protect soldiers against IED explosions.  The idea is to protect the entire face and head against blast waves and to provide support for the neck to prevent the skull whipping about and lightly shaking the brain.

Anyone else see where this is going?

The elephant in the room

Defense Tech looks at the DARPA idea of a "flying Humvee" and asks the obvious question: Who the *&^ is going to drive the thing?

PowerPoint puzzlement

US General Stanley McChrystal on one of the more appalling examples of PowerPoint:

When we understand that slide, we'll have won the war.

No argument from me.

Otherwise, it was a perfect cover

Jihadists always make that one fatal mistake that gives them away. Major Hasan's was that he had business cards printed up saying he was a Jihadist.

Fort Hood Shooting

ABC reports three gunmen killed twelve people and wounded 31 others at Fort Hood Army base in Texas. The US Army confirms that the three were all soldiers and at least one was an officer. One gunman is reported killed and the other two are in custody.

This is one of those incidents where the importance lies not so much in what as in who. Given that the officer has been identified as Major Malik Nadal Hasan, I doubt if he's a Presbyterian and I'm provisionally marking this one down as Enemy Action. If that pans out, then my prediction of what would happen under Barack Hussein Obama has come to pass and we're in the worst mess the West has seen since September 11th.

This is one time when I would be very, very happy to be proven wrong.

Update: It seems now that Major Hasan was working alone.

Update: Major Hasan not dead.

Update: Meanwhile, the MSM are leaving no stone unturned–except one.

Update: Alleged quote by Major Hasan:

Muslims should rise up against the aggressors.

Somehow I doubt post-traumatic stress syndrome is involved.

Update: As night follows day, we're warned of the inevitable, yet never materialises "anti-Muslim backlash".

Cool Undies

The US Army is developing liquid-cooled underwear.

A brilliant idea, but unfortunately it seems to consist only of a tunic. Now if they could come up with a pair of liquid-cooled boxers, I might be able to do something about this heat rash of mine.