It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, December 19, 2022
Northern Syria needs 'clearing' of Kurdish forces: Erdogan tells Putin Syrian Kurds wave flags in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil, during a demonstration
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Russian counterpart on Sunday that there was a need to "clear" northern Syria of Kurdish forces, during a telephone call.
Turkey's leader said to Vladimir Putin “it is ... a priority to clear the border of terrorists, at least 30 km deep", referring to Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, according to a statement from his office.
The two leaders also discussed grain supplies and a potential regional gas hub in Turkey, both countries said.
Both men discussed "the problem" of resolving the Syrian conflict and how the conditions of a 2019 agreement between Russia and Turkey could be "fulfilled".
Three years ago Moscow and Ankara signed a deal, promising to create a buffer zone between the Turkish border and YPG forces that would be controlled by the Syrian army and Russian military police.
While Russian and Syrian forces are in the border region, the agreement was not fully implemented and Kurdish groups remain.
The two countries will continue "close contact" in the realms of defence and foreign policy, the Russian presidency said in its statement.
Erdogan has threatened to launch a military operation in northern Syria against the YPG since November.
Turkey launched air and artillery strikes in Syria and Iraq following an explosion in Istanbul on 13 November that six people and wounded dozens of others.
Ankara accused the YPG and its affiliates the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) of being behind the attack that killed six people in Istanbul on November 13.
Kurdish forces have denied any involvement. They typically attack only targets linked to the Turkish state.
A separate agreement on the creation of a buffer zone in northern Syria was struck between Ankara and Washington in 2019.
Turkey criticises the US, as well as Russia, for not respecting these deals and allowing the YPG to remain in the north, which is home to the bulk of Syria's Kurdish population.
During the Syrian Civil War, the Kurds were able to carve out an autonomous state in north and eastern Syria, having long wanted more political autonomy.
Kurdish troops spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State, working alongside international forces to drive the jihadist group from its Syrian strongholds.
Both Moscow and Washington oppose a possible Turkish ground incursion into northern Syria.
Coffee consumption to rise 1-2 pct per year: International Coffee Organization Roasted coffee beans are seen on display at a Juan Valdez store
in Bogota, Colombia June 5, 2019. (File Photo: Reuters)
Bloomberg Published: 11 December ,2022
Global consumption of coffee is likely to climb by 1 percent to 2 percent a year through the end of the decade, according to International Coffee Organization Executive Director Vanusia Nogueira, who estimated about 25 million more 60 kilograms bags would be needed over the next eight years
“We are more conservative now for a short-term projection,” Nogueira said during a conference in Hanoi held by the Vietnam Coffee-Cocoa Association, referring to all the events the world is facing, including high inflation in Europe.
The ICO’s previous forecast that global consumption will rise 3.3 percent per year on average in the next four to five decades was too “optimistic,” she added.
The global industry will reach a balance in coffee supply and demand in the next two or three years, from the current deficit, Nogueira said in an interview with Bloomberg.
The world needs more of both arabica and robusta beans, but increases in robusta production and demand will be higher, she said.
Traditional arabica producers are trying to grow robusta amid global warming while roasters have also tried to add more cheaper robusta in their blends. “If you have robusta with higher quality, consumers won’t feel a big difference in the blends.”
Many markets are looking for fine robusta, Nogueira said at the conference on Sunday. Vietnam is doing its homework on expanding to high-quality robusta production “quite well,” she said, recalling her surprise on tasting three sets of “very good coffee cups” during a visit a day earlier with a group of international guests to a coffee shop owned by the nation’s second largest coffee exporter Vinh Hiep Co.
The ICO doesn’t see Vietnam’s global dominance of robusta exports being hurt by Brazil’s increased production of conilon, because the extra output is to supply the South American country’s soluble industry, the world’s largest, according to Nogueira.
She said coffee-growing nations need to boost consumption domestically for better prices and benefits to their economies.
Vietnam sees domestic coffee consumption rising 5 percent to 10 percent in coming years, from the current 300,000 tons, which comprises 170,000 tons used for instant coffee production, Do Ha Nam, vice head of the country’s coffee association, said during the same conference.
Nam, who is also chairman of the nation’s top shipper Intimex Group, projected shipments from Vietnam dropping in 2022-23 because of lower production and insignificant carry-over stocks from the previous season.
Amid growing discontent, a jump in the number of Chinese seeking to move to Canada
The exodus by mostly middle-income and wealthy people has been dubbed the 'run' phenomenon.
By Liu Fei and Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin 2022.12.11
People have lunch at a food court in Beijing's middle-class neighborhood of Shangdi, Aug. 17, 2022. The current exodus from China is mostly middle-class families and high-earning corporate professionals who have the means to relocate.
Credit: AFP
The number of Chinese applying to emigrate to Canada rose 15 percent during the July-September quarter, the latest indication of widespread public dissatisfaction with life in China, particularly under the harsh anti-virus restrictions of the past three years that have hamstrung economic growth and curbed individual freedoms.
Canada’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship received 9,925 applications from Chinese people for permanent residency during the third quarter, up 15 percent from the same quarter of 2021.
The exodus, mostly of middle-class families and high-earning corporate professionals who have the wherewithal to relocate, has been dubbed the "run" phenomenon, using a Chinese character that sounds a little like the English word "run."
Lin Litong, who came to Canada as a student six years ago, said he's not surprised by the trend.
"There was a saying that became popular 10 or 20 years ago -- voting with one's feet," Lin told Radio Free Asia. "There is a deep sense of discontent running through the entire business and political elite and all through the middle class."
"It's about regaining a sense of safety and security," he said. "It doesn't matter if people say life is more complex in foreign countries ... at least people feel safe."
China's "10-point" announcement on Dec. 7 that it would loosen some aspects of the zero-COVID restrictions in the wake of mass protests across the country didn't appear to have had much effect on keyword searches for "emigration," which have been spiked several times since the Shanghai lockdown that began in late March.
While keyword searches on WeChat and Baidu saw spikes in searches for "10-point plan" and "no more PCR tests," searches for "emigration" also doubled to nearly 120 million on the day of the announcement.
Vote of no confidence
China announced strict curbs on "non-essential" overseas travel by its nationals in May, amid a surge in immigration inquiries after weeks of grueling mass testing, lockdowns and forcible mass transportation to quarantine camps.
Reports have also surfaced on social media of people leaving China for foreign study having their passports clipped and invalidated as they boarded planes, and also from people who had been denied passports when they applied for them. In April, Chinese residents were ordered to hand over any valid passports to the authorities for "safe-keeping."
People protest in solidarity over COVID-19 restrictions in mainland China, during a commemoration of the victims of a fire in Urumqi outside the Chinese consulate in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Nov. 29, 2022. Credit: Reuters
Shanghai resident Xiao Zhang said the upsurge in searches for "emigration" was a kind of vote of no confidence in the government.
"This sudden uptick in discussions about emigration recorded by the WeChat Index was linked to the official announcement relaxing zero-COVID controls," Zhang said. "Many people seem to think that the current ban on overseas travel is directly linked to the zero-COVID policy, so they think that once those rules are relaxed, they have a better chance of getting out [of China]."
But in reality, Zhang said he thinks the exit ban has more to do with controlling people and capital outflows. So while the government may relax immigration rules, he suspects it will be for only a short window.
Immigration consultation
Meanwhile, business has been booming in recent years for immigration consultants, although there are signs of a potential crackdown on that sector too, with reports emerging of immigration consultants being hauled in for questioning by state security police.
Immigration consultant Huang Tianle said Canada's immigration policies tend to favor younger people, meaning that Chinese parents often send their children to study there to obtain the legal right to remain.
He said the current wave of Chinese emigration to Canada was preceded by a similar wave of people leaving Hong Kong after China launched a citywide crackdown on dissent and political opposition in the wake of the 2019 protest movement.
Many remain politically engaged even after leaving China, with considerable support seen on Canadian university campuses for the recent wave of anti-lockdown protests in Chinese cities.
The Hon Hsing Athletic Club performs a dragon dance outside of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Chinatown in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Feb. 5, 2022. Credit: Reuters
Bai Yun, a musician and poet living in Canada, said she had composed a song in honor of the "white paper" movement, so named because of the blank sheets of A4 printer paper held up by protesters, that was sung at a recent rally in Toronto.
"Can you hear the sound of the dawn, a window opening to face the sun?" the crowd sang.
Sunny Sonam, chairman of the Toronto branch of the Tibetan Youth Association, said he was optimistic that people have a clearer idea of the way forward, despite the tailing off of public protests on the streets of Chinese cities in recent days.
"People realize that enough is enough," Sonam said. "It's terrible when power is concentrated in the hands of one person."
"Of course this wave of protests will slowly dissipate as zero-COVID restrictions are lifted, but people now know that standing together is an effective way to make their voices heard."
Propaganda machine
There are signs the Chinese Communist Party's censorship and propaganda machine is fighting back against the exodus of well-heeled professionals.
While the #emigration hashtag on social media typically garners tens of thousands of daily views, much of the content focuses on the disadvantages of living overseas, suggesting some kind of intervention by the ruling Communist Party's "public opinion management" system.
At their peak, search queries for the keyword "emigration" hit 70 million several times during the Shanghai lockdown between March and May, and 130 million immediately afterwards. The same keyword also showed peaks on Toutiao Index, Google Trends and 360 Trends between April and the end of June 2022.
People attend a candlelight vigil commemorating the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen square massacre in Beijing, standing outside of the Chinese consulate in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 4, 2022. Credit: AFP
More recently, the hashtags #escapefromGuangzhou and #escapefromZhengzhou were trending amid COVID-19 lockdowns in those cities.
Shanghai-based Xu Xiangcheng, who works in education, said he has been preparing to leave China since the national security crackdown on Hong Kong in 2019.
Xu, who is in his 40s, said that he was educated in the communist system, but that his generation has a deep affinity for Hong Kong and Taiwan. “Hong Kong means a lot to us."
Giving up the dream
He said he once had a fantasy that he could do something to “make Chinese society better,” but the “forcible occupation of Hong Kong by the Communist Party and the suppression of such ideas there made me think I didn't want my kids getting an education in this kind of environment," he said. "So I made up my mind to emigrate three years ago."
Xu said many of his friends have the same idea.
"They didn't decide this until this year, because the situation deteriorated," he said. "I feel that there is no hope for this place, so I have to leave."
While Xu has been in contact with an immigration consultancy, his plans were hugely hampered by the zero-COVID policy.
"I have run into problems preparing the materials to support my visa application, because there is always so much [bureaucratic] back and forth in China," he said. "A lot of documents are unavailable due to lockdowns."
"Schools are suspended and my bank is closed, along with government departments, which makes things very difficult," he said.
“Things are really miserable”
Henan-based current affairs commentator Li Fatian said there are plenty of rural residents who are hoping to leave, too.
"Small and medium-sized enterprises have been hit hard by the pandemic restrictions," Li said. "There are no jobs, and businesses are still paying rent despite being forced to close their doors."
"This stupid, one-size-fits-all policy makes it impossible for a lot of people to survive [in China]," he said. "Things are really miserable right now."
Li said many migrant workers have been forced back to rural areas by lockdowns, which has likely defused wider anti-government unrest due to lower population density and less access to timely information.
Current affairs commentator Fang Yuan said most people now want to escape the strict anti-virus rules, one way or another, even if leaving the country isn't an option.
"The exodus from large, medium and smaller cities to rural areas is the main form of escape, or fleeing cities under lockdown," Fang said. "It's disruptive to daily life, because these are essential workers."
Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
Iran hands new 10-year sentence to Baha’i figures: Group
Judge gavel in front of Iran flag
AFP Published: 11 December ,2022:
Iran has jailed for 10 years each two prominent Baha’i figures as part of a crackdown on its largest non-Muslim religious minority, the group representing the community at the UN said Sunday.
Mahvash Sabet, 69, and Fariba Kamalabadi, 60, who had both previously served 10-year prison terms over their activism, were handed new sentences after a one-hour trial on November 21, the Baha’i International Community (BIC) said in a statement.
The two women had been arrested in late July at the start of a fresh crackdown against the Baha’is, who are estimated to number some 300,000 in Iran. The Islamic republic recognizes minority non-Muslim faiths including Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism but does not extend the same recognition to Baha’ism.
“It is profoundly distressing to learn that these two Baha’i women... are once again being incarcerated for another 10 years on the same ludicrous charges,” said Simin Fahandej, representative of the BIC to the UN in Geneva.
“Words fail to describe this absurd and cruel injustice,” she added.
The precise nature of the national security-related charges were not immediately clear, but Iran's intelligence ministry said in August it had arrested Baha’is suspected of spying for a center in Israel and working illegally to spread their religion.
At least 90 Baha’is are currently in prison or subject to ankle-band monitoring, the BIC said, adding that it had counted 320 individual acts of persecution against members of the community since the end of July.
The crackdown has seen Baha’i homes destroyed and business shut down, it added.
Iran is also in the throes of a nationwide crackdown against protests over the September death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian women of Kurdish origin, after her arrest by the morality police.
Baha’is are used to Iranian accusations of links to Israel, whose northern city of Haifa hosts a center of the Baha’i faith that was established following the exile of a Baha’i leader well before the state of Israel was created.
Baha’is regard such allegations has a pretext for persecution.
Both Sabet and Kamalabadi had been part of a now disbanded Baha’i administrative group known as the Yaran.
The pair were first arrested in 2008 and released in 2018, according to the BIC.
Sabet, who wrote poetry during her decade in Tehran's Evin prison, was recognized in 2017 as an English PEN International Writer of Courage.
'A disgrace that weakens Europe’: Anger over MEPs-Qatar corruption scandal
By Euronews • Updated: 12/12/2022
The arrest and charging of four people in connection with an anti-corruption investigation involving members of the European Parliament and a Gulf state, said to be Qatar, could shake Brussels to its core.
Some MEPs, including one of the parliament's vice-presidents Eva Kaili who was held in custody on Sunday, have been accused of accepting large sums of money from a Gulf country reported to be World Cup hosts Qatar. Doha has denied the accusations.
The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described the latest developments as "very worrisome" as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
"An investigation is underway and we are following it up," he said. "These are very serious accusations."
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the "full force of law" had to be brought to bear in the case. "This is about the credibility of Europe, so this has to trigger consequences in various areas," she said.
"This is a scandal that we need to get to the bottom of so that we can make sure it doesn't happen again," Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said, calling for a "full and transparent investigation".
The Greek government moved on Monday to freeze Kaili's assets, AFP reported. The Greek politician has also been suspended by the European Parliament's Socialists & Democrats and expelled from Greece's centre-left PASOK party.
The co-president of the Greens group in the European Parliament, Philippe Lamberts, called for a parliamentary inquiry and for the issue of corruption to be brought up this week at the year's last EU assembly’s plenary session.
The EU legislator was due to open on Monday in what promised to be a fiery session. It is scheduled to vote this week on a proposal to extend visa-free travel to the EU for Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Ecuador. Some lawmakers have suggested the debate and vote should be postponed.
Niels Fuglsang, a MEP with the Danish Social Democratic Party, pointed to the damaging effect this scandal could have on the bloc.
"If we can be bought, if members of the European Parliament and other politicians can be bought to say certain things, to vote in certain ways... it's a disgrace and it makes Europe weaker," he told Euronews.
“So, it's in everybody's interest that we get to the bottom of this and adopt rules to make sure such things must never happen [again]... That [what happened] is very wrong, and we have a big reparation job to do."
This affair is "shameful and intolerable" and "very seriously" damages the Parliament's reputation, EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on Sunday.
French left-wing politicians have lambasted the "very serious scandal", with MEP Manon Aubry (The Left) demanding a debate on the issue and criticising "aggressive lobbying" by Qatar.
On Friday, Belgian police staged 16 raids across Brussels. Around €600,000 in cash was seized, in addition to computer equipment and mobile telephones.
They came amid investigations into months-long suspicions of "substantial" money payments made by a Gulf state to influence MEPs.
The Belgian federal prosecutor's office did not name the country, but a source close to the issue confirmed to AFP that it was Qatar, which other media outlets have also reported.
Kaili has since been arrested and charged. And she has been stripped of her duties as vice-president of the European Parliament.
The other three individuals who have been charged remain unnamed. But AP reported at their number includes one EU lawmaker and a former member.
EU 'should strengthen anti-corruption laws'
Some experts have argued in light of the scandal that the EU should now strengthen its anti-corruption legislation.
"I would believe -- and I do believe -- that it would be very important that the EU seriously thinks about these questions and prepares itself for situations like this in the future," Tamás Lattmann, an expert on international and European law, told Euronews.
"[It should] propose some kind of legislation of its own to handle situations like this, and to make the possible cooperation with member-states' authorities much more seamless and to some extent, more guaranteed."
Before the scandal broke, the assembly was considering visa free entry into the Schengen zone for Qatari citizens.
But the European People's Party, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Greens have since called for the suspension of the assembly’s vote on the issue.
The allegations come at a sensitive time for Qatar as it hosts the World Cup. The Gulf State has already had to battle against claims around alleged human rights abuses of migrant workers and the LGBT+ community.
"Any allegation of misconduct on the part of the State of Qatar testifies to serious misinformation," a Qatari government official told AFP on Saturday.
Additional sources • AFP, AP, Reuters
Big names bail from NGO caught up in EU Parliament graft scandal
Mogherini, Avramopoulos among former officials bolting from the board of Fight Impunity. European Parliament in Strasbourg | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images
Bold-faced names are jumping ship from the board of an NGO at the center of an alleged corruption scandal in the European Parliament.
Former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, former French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, former European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and former MEP Cecilia Wikström are all listed as members of an “Honorary Board” of Fight Impunity. So is MEP Isabel Santos.
They’ve all quit the board in the wake of allegations against the founder of Fight Impunity, Pier Antonio Panzeri.
Panzeri, an ex-MEP from the Socialists and Democrats group, was arrested on Friday in connection with accusations of bribes and undue influence from Qatar — charges Doha denies. European Parliament assistants who have worked for the organization have also been arrested and had their offices sealed by police.
Starting an NGO in Brussels is relatively easy. Gaining credibility is much harder. When connections are currency, it helps to show who you know.
Panzeri, a former chairman of the Parliament’s human rights subcommittee, knew some powerful people — and he apparently leveraged them to create the impression of an exclusive club.
He knew Mogherini, for example, through his membership in the Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. Then Panzeri, who left Parliament in 2019, tapped her to join the board of Fight Impunity, according to an aide at the College of Europe, where Mogherini is now rector. The aide noted that she was invited to join the board along with Avramopoulos and Emma Bonino, a respected elder of the Italian left and former foreign minister.
Mogherini agreed to give opening remarks in March at a presentation that students organized with the NGO, but otherwise Mogherini has had no involvement with the organization, the aide said. Mogherini left the board as of Saturday, the aide added.
Avramopoulos said that he, Cazeneuve and Wikström also bolted from the board as soon as they heard about the allegations.
The honorary board had “no executive or managerial role,” Avramopoulos said in an email Sunday. He also noted that he had been invited to join “along with other personalities.”
Avramopoulos said he received permission from the European Commission to take up the position, and received a declared honorarium between February 2021 and February 2022. After that, the honorarium stopped “as I had zero involvement with Fight Impunity,” Avramopoulos said.
Both Avramopoulos and the Mogherini aide said the subject of Qatar never came up in the context of Fight Impunity.
Isabel Santos, a sitting S&D MEP from Portugal, said Sunday that she had already written to Fight Impunity asking to be removed from the board.
“I am shocked and surprised by the latest news involving the President of the Association,” she said in an email, referring to Panzeri.
Bonino’s membership on the Fight Impunity board isn’t likely to be her biggest headache. A former MEP and decorated human rights activist, she is the founder of No Peace Without Justice.
According to Italian newswire Ansa, the director general of that NGO, Niccolò Figà -Talamanca has also been detained in the corruption probe. Focused on international criminal justice, human rights and promoting democracy in the Middle East and North Africa, the organization is officially based in Rome and Brussels, and has the same Brussels address as Fight Impunity, at 41 Rue Ducale.
Neither Bonino nor Figà -Talamanca responded to messages sent through No Peace Without Justice on Saturday.
Eddy Wax contributed reporting.
With U.S. shale oil boom over, can world production climb?
Fast forward to today when OilPrice.com has declared that “The U.S. Shale Boom Is Officially Over.” The reasons cited mostly have to do with management “discipline” regarding capital expenditure in favor of shareholder payouts and complaints about “anti-oil rhetoric” and “regulatory uncertainty.”
But there might just be another reason for the slowdown in shale oil production in the United States: There isn’t as much accessible and economical shale oil underground as advertised. Earth scientist David Hughes laid out his case for this view in his “Shale Reality Check 2021.” (For a summary of Hughes’ report, see my piece from December 2021 entitled, “U.S. shale oil and gas forecast: Too good to be true?”)
There may be other sources of oil worldwide that will somehow make up for the significantly lower growth in U.S. shale oil production. But no other source seems set to provide the kind of growth U.S. shale oil provided, that is, 73.2 percent of the global increase in oil production from 2008 through 2018.
Neither the U.S. shale oil companies nor OPEC seem ready to increase production significantly (assuming that they can). Russia, among the world’s top three producers, is under heavy sanction and may not be able to produce more oil for export anytime soon. (Again, it is not certain that Russia can significantly increase production. Except for the pandemic-induced drop Russia has long been on a production plateau of between 10 and 11 mbpd.)
No doubt some new oil savior will be announced soon whether credible or not. In the meantime, the world economy will be faced with limited oil supplies that do not simply grow to meet our fantasies of what we want. The result will be high prices, that is, higher than has been historically the case. A recession won’t change this dynamic and, in fact, may reinforce it as oil companies are likely to reduce drilling activity when demand for oil slumps. That will make it doubly difficult for those companies to supply growing demand coming out of the next recession.
This is the way things might very well be for a long time if not indefinitely. Many of us who foresaw this day said that we would only see peak world oil production in the rearview mirror. It may take a few more years to determine if November 2018 marked the all-time peak.
Photo: Oil shale mine in Estonia (2019). “Geological fieldworks, underground in the Estonian oilshale mine to study the variable mineralogical and chemical compostion and microsturcture in the different layers of the oil shale profile” by Peeter paaver. via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oilshale_mine_01.jpg
SR-71 Blackbird: So Fast It Could ‘Make The Tires Melt’ (She Hit Mach 3.3)
The SR-71 Blackbird: The Fastest Plane, the Most Repairs Needed?: It was a mystery. The SR-71 Blackbird was built of titanium and other space-age alloys to handle the excessive heat caused by high-altitude and high-speed flight. But for some reason, some of the titanium parts were corroding. Various elements showed corrosion in the summer, but no problems were found during the winter months. This was just one of many odd problems found on the SR-71, still the fastest plane ever to fly. And, even stranger, it sits retired in a museum. Here are just a few of the issues the Blackbird encountered during its career:
How Did The Engineers Figure Out the Corrosion Problem?
Thankfully the engineers worked like present-day data scientists. They had evidence from the titanium scraps that were discarded during the production process. Engineers had kept track of each scrap and described its condition in a database. They then devised a trend analysis and found something that shed some insights into the problem. Summer Versus Winter – a Whodunit
Parts welded in the summer were failing soon after work was completed. But in the winter no such issues were found. What was causing this conundrum? Engineers knew that in the summer, water was used to clean parts to prevent algae build-up on the titanium.
They found that the culprit was chlorine in the water and that affected the titanium negatively. They started using distilled water and that helped.
A NEW ISSUE CROPPED UP
Linda Sheffield Miller of the Aviation Geek Club who recounted the water problem also found another issue that SR-71 engineers had to solve.
“They discovered that their cadmium plated tools were leaving trace amounts of cadmium on bolts, which would cause galvanic corrosion and cause the bolts to fail. This discovery led to all cadmium tools to be removed from the workshop.”
THE NEXT SR-71 PROBLEM: KEEP THE TIRES FROM MELTING?
Another issue had to do with the tires. They could melt at Mach 3.3 and 600, maybe even up to a 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Workers used aluminum on the areas where the wheels retracted and added latex. Then they filled the tires with nitrogen. The tire pressure was 415 pounds per square inch compared to the 35 psi in your car.
STABILIZE THE FUEL
What about the fuel at high temperatures? For every hour of flight, the Blackbird needed at least 18 tons of fuel. Shell Oil created a low volatility tailor-made fuel called JP-7 that could withstand the rigors of flight and not evaporate at high altitude (up to 85,000 feet). They added a chemical element called cesium to help stabilize the fuel so it would have a higher flashpoint. The cesium also helped reduce the radar signatures from the jet exhaust plume.
RADAR EVASION HAD TO BE IMPROVED
To better evade radar, the Pratt and Whitney J58 engines had pointed cones to protect the face of the inlets. The extensions on the front edge of the wings were curved. The rear vertical stabilizers were angled. Special “iron paint” made of iron ferrite particles was used to reduce radar signature. This coating would have a high price tag at $400 per quart
A direct front view of an SR-71 Blackbird aircraft after
landing from its 1,000th sortie.
SR-71 and F-16. Image: Creative Commons.
SR-71 Engine from Pratt & Whitney J58 The SR-71 Took a Ton of Maintenance
Being the fastest plane on Earth did not come easy, and maintenance was key, even if it took a lot of maintenance to keep the SR-71 flying high.
Workers had to work long hours to keep the Blackbird in the air. As you could imagine, one flight could result in missing parts that needed to be repaired. 12 of 34 airplanes produced were lost due to accidents involving various mechanical failures. Each flight was an adventure for ground crews. Airplane historian Jenny Ma described it well.
“The teams compared each takeoff to a rocket launch — if there’s a mission now, the Blackbird will be off the ground in 19 hours. To just start the plane, a “start cart’ is needed to connect to each engine and help them get to the minimum 3000 RPM for it to become self-sustaining.”
SR-71. SR-71 photo taken at the National Air and Space Museum.
Taken by 19FortyFive on 10/1/2022.
SR-71
SR-71 photo taken at the National Air and Space Museum.
Taken by 19FortyFive on 10/1/2022.
SR-71 Blackbird 19FortyFive Original Image. Taken 10/1/2022.
SR-71 Blackbird, Udvar-Hazy Center | National Air and Space Museum.
October 1, 2022. 19FortyFive Original Image.
Today’s airplane engineers and designers could learn many lessons from the SR-71. It was so far ahead of its time that it paved the way for new stealth bombers and fighters. The personnel involved were able to keep the details of the airplane secret, but perhaps that would not be possible today with civilian flight enthusiasts taking and distributing photos of new airplanes on social media.
One thing is certain, the SR-71 Blackbird was a stunning feat of American ingenuity, no matter how much repair and maintenance was needed.
Many think of the A-10 as a flying tank so old that she should be retired to make way for room and budget for newer planes like the F-35. And yet, there are those that just won’t let this plane head into the sunset. –
On May 10, 1972, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt had its maiden flight. The development of the aircraft began in the early 1960s when the United States military was still relying on the Korean War-era Douglas A-1 Skyraider for its primary ground-attack aircraft.
The Skyraider was certainly a capable aircraft for its air, but by Vietnam, its age was showing. In fact, the aircraft was ill-suited to the jungle campaign, and as a result, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy lost 266 A-1s in combat, largely from small arms fire.
Even before that point, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had called for the development of a tactical attack aircraft. Despite the more overt attractions of Mach 2 aircraft, the Air Force focused on the close air support (CAS) mission. It needed something that was a modernized Skyraider that could carry a heavy load of ordnance, had good endurance and could survive severe damage from ground fire.
Between 1963 and 1969, extensive studies gradually refined the specifications for the new aircraft, and several prototypes were considered. In December 1972, the Fairchild Republic A-10A Thunderbolt was deemed the winner, while GE was chosen to produce the aircraft’s 30mm tank-busting GAU-8 gun, a powerful weapon that had a very high muzzle velocity that was twenty times that of the 75mm gun fitted to some B-25s in World War II.
In addition, the 30mm gun, which used rotating barrels, offered an unparalleled rate-of-fire for an aircraft weapon. Able to fire up to 4,200 rounds per minute, no attack aircraft in history has ever mounted a gun with the tank-killing capability of the GAU-8. Introduction of the A-10
Production of the A-10 Thunderbolt II began in 1972, and the aircraft officially entered service with the United States Air Force in 1977. The A-10s short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability permitted it to operate from airstrips close to front lines. Service at forwarding base areas with limited facilities is possible because of the A-10’s simplicity of design.
It was first deployed during Operation Urgent Fury, the 1983 American invasion of Grenada, and provided air cover for the United States Marine Corps, but did not fire their weapons.
An A-10 Thunderbolt II takes off to provide close-air support to ground troops in Iraq April 25 from Al Asad Air Base, Iraq. The 438th Air Expeditionary Group A-10s perform 10 sorties daily, with 900 sorties in this last four months. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Cecilio M. Ricardo Jr.)
In fact, it wasn’t until the Gulf War in 1991 that the aircraft took part in combat operations. A-10s successfully shot down two Iraqi helicopters with the GAU-8, and took part in numerous sorties against Iraqi Republican Guard units. Several A-10s were shot down by surface-to-air missiles, while nearly a dozen were hit by anti-air artillery rounds – yet the aircraft performed well enough that the Air Force abandoned an idea to replace the A-10s with a close air support version of the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
Wings Clipped?
Over the past two decades, the A-10 has been deployed to subsequent operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. However, for the past decade, the Air Force has wanted to divest some or all of its remaining 281 A-10 Warthogs. The service’s most recent plan was to reduce the A-10 fleet to some 218 aircraft in total within the next two years and to retain those planes with a number of upgrades, including new wings, a new High-Resolution Display System and other advancements that could extend their operational service through 2030 or beyond.
Supporters of the A-10 note that it offers excellent maneuverability at low airspeeds and altitude while maintaining a highly accurate weapons-delivery platform. The Thunderbolt II can loiter near battle areas for extended periods of time, are capable of austere landings, and operate under 1,000-foot ceilings (303.3 meters) with 1.5-mile (2.4 kilometers) visibility.
In addition, its wide combat radius and short takeoff and landing capability permit operations in and out of locations near front lines. Using night-vision goggles, A-10C pilots can conduct their missions during darkness, while Thunderbolt IIs are also equipped with a Night Vision Imaging Systems (NVIS), goggle compatible single-seat cockpits forward of their wings, Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems and a large bubble canopy that provides pilots all-around vision.
Image: Creative Commons.
Image: Creative Commons.
Image: Creative Commons
Image: Creative Commons.
The aircraft’s pilots are even protected by titanium armor that further protects parts of the flight-control system. The redundant primary structural sections allow the aircraft provides better survivability during close air support than the previous aircraft. The A-10, which has earned the moniker “Warthog,” can survive direct hits from armor-piercing and high explosive projectiles up to 23mm. The aircraft’s self-sealing fuel cells are protected by internal and external foam, while manual systems back up their redundant hydraulic flight-control systems – and permits pilots to fly and land when hydraulic power is lost.
Designed for the accurate delivery of ordnance at low altitude, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt became one of the most heavily armed, and armored plane in history. New Lease on Life? In March 2022, the Air Force announced that it had tested an A-10C Thunderbolt II loaded with GBU-39 Small-Diameter Bombs near Eglin Air Force Base (AFB), Florida. This integration of the GBU-39 on the A-10 is one of the major upgrades that were announced in 2019 as part of the A-10 Common Fleet Initiative.
This upgrade, which has been in development since 2020, will increase the weapon capacity of the A-10, which until now was limited to carrying only a single weapon on each pylon. By utilizing the BRU-61/A rack, the A-10 will be able to carry four SDBs on each weapon pylon, becoming essentially a “bomb truck” that can release these stand-off weapons to neutralize threats as far as fifty miles in the target area before starting to provide Close Air Support (CAS) to ground troops. This could allow the A-10s to remain a vital part of the Air Force’s fleet well into the 2030s.
Now a Senior Editor for 1945, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He regularly writes about military hardware, and is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes.
Expert Biography: A Senior Editor for 1945, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,000 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
The Stupidity of Russia’s Legislated Heterosexuality
by Eric Zuesse / December 7th, 2022
Legislating heterosexuality is laws that impose penalties for being or publicly expressing non-coercive or “mutually consensual” sexuality of other than the heterosexual type. Such laws can affect lots of people — especially young people, and here is why we know that they hit especially the young:
On 16 August 2015, Britain’s YouGov polling firm headlined “1 in 2 young people say they are not 100% heterosexual” and opened: “Asked to plot themselves on a ‘sexuality scale’, 23% of British people choose something other than 100% heterosexual – and the figure rises to 49% among 18-24 year olds.” It went on to report, “With each generation, people see their sexuality as less fixed in stone. The results for 18-24 year-olds are particularly striking, as 43% place themselves in the non-binary area between 1 and 5 and 52% place themselves at one end or the other. Of these, only 46% say they are completely heterosexual and 6% as completely homosexual.”
The Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey issued by the [U.S.] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention polled just under 8,000 U.S. high school students between Jan. and June of 2021. …Some 22.5% of respondents said they were gay, lesbian or bisexual, or that they identified in some other way or were questioning their sexual identity.
The findings are in keeping with a Gallup poll released last month, in which almost 21% of Gen-Z respondents aged 18 and over identified as members of the LGBTQ community — more than any other generation.
The fact that a higher percentage of younger people than of older people (who have become more acculturated to norms with the passage of their years) self-identify as not being exclusively heterosexual, indicates that as people get older, they increasingly self-identify as being heterosexual. This fact suggests that, at least to some extent, a person’s sexual orientation is not natural but instead is acculturated — the result of conforming to the norm (which norm is naturally heterosexual).
What is normal (or even natural) is not necessarily better than something that is abnormal (or even unnatural). For example: genius is abnormal, but it is certainly better than normal. (And an effective and safe medication is unnatural, but it is certainly an improvement.) On the opposite side, sadism is abnormal, and it is certainly worse than normal. (And going without things that don’t occur in nature can shorten a person’s lifespan.) Popular prejudices to the contrary notwithstanding. However, regarding sexual orientation, there is no reason to prefer one over another, other than to conform to the normal (in order to “fit in”). In other words: the only reason to prefer what is the norm in this matter (sexual orientation), is not, at all, ethical but is instead self-interested (or pejoratively called “selfish”) — the preference for heterosexuality is pragmatic, NOT ethical. Many religions have this all wrong, and they distort the public’s view regarding sexuality (deceiving the public to believe that this is an ‘ethical decision’ instead of a pragmatic statement — true or false — about the given individual, “oneself”). Prejudices harm a society; they don’t help it.
In this case, such bigotries not only produce misery amongst the targeted individuals, but cause millions of gifted persons to leave the bigoted country, or to become vastly less productive in their professions than if that bigotry had not been the norm there.
The preamble to a nation’s Constitution states the ultimate goal that that nation’s — the Constitution’s — writers, their Constitution (the country’s Founders’ Constitution), [Historical evidence points to the US Constitution being based on the Kaienerekowa, the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee — DV ed] aims for; and, in any authentic democracy (if it IS a democratic Constitution), that nation’s Supreme Court is obligated to interpret ALL laws (the Constitutionality or NOT of all laws), not ONLY by every clause in the Constitution but ESPECIALLY by the ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE that the Founders stated: the Constitution’s Preamble. Here is the Preamble to Russia’s Constitution (also seen here):
We, the multinational people of the Russian Federation, united by a common fate on our land, establishing human rights and freedoms, civic peace and accord, preserving the historically established state unity, proceeding from the universally recognized principles of equality and self-determination of peoples, revering the memory of ancestors who have conveyed to us the love for the Fatherland, belief in the good and justice, reviving the sovereign statehood of Russia and asserting the firmness of its democratic basic, striving to ensure the well-being and prosperity of Russia, proceeding from the responsibility for our Fatherland before the present and future generations, recognizing ourselves as part of the world community, adopt the CONSTITUTION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.
The next-most-important clauses are the first ones; here are the first two:
Article 1
The Russian Federation – Russia is a democratic federal law-bound State with a republican form of government.
The names “Russian Federation” and “Russia” shall be equal.
Article 2
Man, his rights and freedoms are the supreme value. The recognition, observance and protection of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen shall be the obligation of the State.
Moreover:
Article 14
1. The Russian Federation is a secular state. No religion may be established as a state or obligatory one.
2. Religious associations shall be separated from the State and shall be equal before the law.
Article 15
1. The Constitution of the Russian Federation shall have the supreme juridical force, direct action and shall be used on the whole territory of the Russian Federation. Laws and other legal acts adopted in the Russian Federation shall not contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
So: the authors of Russia’s Government stated clearly the non-participation of religious organizations in the decisions concerning the Constitutionality or not of a law in Russia.
Furthermore:
Article 19
1. All people shall be equal before the law and court.
2. The State shall guarantee the equality of rights and freedoms of man and citizen, regardless of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, property and official status, place of residence, religion, convictions, membership of public associations, and also of other circumstances. All forms of limitations of human rights on social, racial, national, linguistic or religious grounds shall be banned.
3. Man and woman shall enjoy equal rights and freedoms and have equal possibilities to exercise them. …
Article 24
1. The collection, keeping, use and dissemination of information about the private life of a person shall not be allowed without his or her consent. …
Article 28
Everyone shall be guaranteed the freedom of conscience, the freedom of religion, including the right to profess individually or together with others any religion or to profess no religion at all, to freely choose, possess and disseminate religious and other views and act according to them.
Article 29
1. Everyone shall be guaranteed the freedom of ideas and speech.
2. The propaganda or agitation instigating social, racial, national or religious hatred and strife shall not be allowed. The propaganda of social, racial, national, religious or linguistic supremacy shall be banned. …
Article 55
2. In the Russian Federation no laws may be adopted which abolish or diminish human and civil rights and freedoms.
What “human rights” and “freedom” and “civil peace” and “principles of equality” would be advanced, instead of opposed, by the new law that recently was unanimously passed by Russia’s Duma or legislature and signed into law by Putin (and which is so badly reported-on that its text is not yet available in a U.S. Web-search)? Russia’s Constitution CLEARLY prohibits anything like the new Russian law, even saying that “All forms of limitations of human rights on social, racial, national, linguistic or religious grounds shall be banned.” “BANNED.” (The fact that Russia’s Supreme Court has not been enforcing, but ignoring or denying, the Constitution is damning.)
Basically, what the new law (whatever it is) does is to impose anti-gay censorship upon commerce, and the arts, and the sciences, and on the educational system, so as to satisfy the prejudices of bigots.
Russia’s Duma, and President, and Supreme Court, have thus been driving out LGBT people — including great performers in all fields, scientific, artistic and otherwise — in order to satisfy the public’s bigotries that are promoted by all religions, and they are doing this in blatant and direct violation of their own Constitution. The stupidity of this is awesome. It hurts Russia; bigotries hurt ANY country.
Russia’s Constitution is just a piece of paper, no different from America’s Constitution (and remarkably similar to that), which likewise is no longer actually in force. The traitors have taken over, not only in this or that country but in most countries. To be a bigot isn’t only to be stupid; it is to be a traitor in any country that has a democratic Constitution.
Eric Zuesse is an investigative historian. His next book (soon to be published) will be America’s Empire of Evil: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change. It’s about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social "sciences" — duping the public. Read other articles by Eric.
