Drones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gQE--6DGJc

Published on Jul 22, 2015

A viral video named "Flying Gun," which shows a functional semi-automatic handgun mounted on a drone, has led to an investigation by the US Federal Aviation Administration. The video was filmed by 18-year-old engineering student Austin Haughwout of Connecticut. We look at the video of the remote-controlled drone on the Lip News with Jo Ankier and Margaret Howell.

Quadrotor with handgun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxThXvuP4Vo&feature=youtu.be

A-10 Warthog

Warthogs first saw combat during the 1991 Gulf War, where it flew with a mission capable rate of 95.7%.

Although the A-10's principal weapon is its cannon, the plane is also typically equipped with AGM-65 Maverick air-to-surface missiles. It may also carry cluster bombs or Hydra rocket pods.

The A-10 Thunderbolt II, endearingly referred to as the Warthog for its snubbed-nose design, is set for retirement in the 2015 budget as deep cuts to military funding will go into effect.

This planned retirement is deeply unpopular. The Warthog has a tried and true track record of providing close air support to ground troops. Critics of the retirement maintain that the Air Force is simply trying to retire the plane to make way for more exciting, but unproven, future aircraft like the F-35.

The Air Force says it has no choice but to retire the aging plane. It expects that retiring the total fleet of A-10s by 2020 will save an estimated $3.7 billion.

Quiz Up

Uganda

Idi Amin
Ugandan president Idi Amin Dada was a violent dictator whose regime was responsible for some of the worst atrocities in his country's history.

Samurai

kyuba no michi, "the way of the horse and bow."

Bushido wasn't written down at all until the 17th century, after samurai had been in existence for centuries.

Japan had a feudal system, in which a lord expected obedience from his vassals, who in turn received economic and military protection from the lord. 

Samurai also had a duty of vengeance. Should the honor of his master be tarnished, or his master killed, a samurai was required to seek out and kill those responsible. One of the most famous samurai stories, "The 47 Ronin," or masterless samurai, is a tale of traditional samurai vengeance. During a period of peace, their lord was ordered to commit seppuku because of an altercation with another lord. Two years later, all 47 samurai invaded the lord's castle and killed him. They were arrested and forced to commit seppuku, not because they had fulfilled their duty of vengeance (this was expected), but because they had done it with a secret attack, which was considered dishonorable.



“Do nothing that is of no use” 
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

“A thousand days of training to develop, ten thousand days of training to polish. You must examine all this well.” 

“In the strategy of my school, keep your body and mind straight and make your opponent go through contortions and twist about. The essence is to defeat him in the moment when, in his mind, he is pivoting and twisting. You should examine this well.” 

“If you wish to control others you must first control yourself” 

“If you are not progressing along the true way, a slight twist in the mind can become a major twist. This must be pondered well.” 

“Never stray from the Way.” 

“Step by step walk the thousand-mile road.” 

“Both in fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. Even when your spirit is calm do not let your body relax, and when your body is relaxed do not let your spirit slacken. Do not let your spirit be influenced by your body, or your body be influenced by your spirit.” 

“When your opponent is hurrying recklessly, you must act contrarily and keep calm. You must not be influenced by the opponent.” 

“Nobody is strong and nobody is weak if he conceives of the body, from the head to the sole of the foot, as a unity in which a living mind circulates everywhere equally.” 

“No man is invincible, and therefore no man can fully understand that which would make him invincible” 

“It is difficult to realize the true Way just through sword-fencing. Know the smallest things and the biggest things, the shallowest things and the deepest things.” 
“You can only fight the way you practice” 

“Do not regret what you have done” 

“If you do not control the enemy, the enemy will control you” 

“The only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win” 

“from one thing, know ten thousand things” 

“When you decide to attack, keep calm and dash in quickly, forestalling the enemy...attack with a feeling of constantly crushing the enemy, from first to last.” 

“The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions” 

"Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men."

“there is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.” 

“You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain” 

“All men are the same except for their belief in their own selves, regardless of what others may think of them” 

“Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help” 

Took the quiz today

Egypt = Gift Of The Nile
Dem Rep of Congo was once called Zaire
Thailand = Land Of Smiles
Saudi Arabia = Land of the Two Holy Mosques

Pirates of Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

$250 , 000, 000    total budget

136 minutes total show time

$1, 838, 235   per minute spent

if calculated per second

a total of $30,637 per second

UAV

United States Forces Korea (USFK) plan to deploy the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, a war-tested Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV), to the Korean Peninsula as early as July, the Chosun Ilbo reported Wednesday.

The Gray Eagle was first implemented by the U.S. Army unit deployed in Camp Taji, Iraq in 2010. It has retained its popularity among U.S. Army aviation units, as the Army ordered 19 additional Improved Gray Eagles from General Atomics last year.

The USFK public relations office declined to confirm or deny the deployment of the Gray Eagle, or the number of units that might be deployed.

“It seems like the Chosun Ilbo has came up with the news on the Gray Eagle after cross-checking with many other military sources such as the South Korean military’s newspaper, General Atomics’ announcement from November last year and so on. But we cannot discuss anything related to our operational capability,” the USFK told NK News.

The vehicle participated in the ROK-U.S. joint training exercise last August from Kunsan Air Base, South Korea.

During the last year’s joint training, the Gray Eagle provided streamed video and metadata directly to an AH-64 Apache helicopter. The data transmitted to the Apache was re-transmitted to the control terminal, allowing ground forces to share the view of the video captured by the helicopter, according to a previous announcement from General Atomics.