Open Thread - 12 January, 2014

pl

Comments

[Neil Richardson]

I'm curious as to what other regional specialists think about this piece by Anna Simons. IIRC she's married to a former SF man whom she'd met while doing fieldwork for her research on Somalia.

http://warontherocks.com/2013/12/rebooting-country-studies/

Rebooting Country Studies by Anna Simons

[Tyler]

Any apiarists around?

[Bandolero]

Heavy fighting is currently going on in Syria, triggered by a push from some anti-government groups against ISIS.

It's a bit confusing not least because the coalition that is presented in many media outlets as a fight of "moderate rebels" against ISIS, a group of Al Qaeda in Iraq, seems to include Nusra Front, Al Qaeda's official Syrian branch, on the moderate side.

And the moderate rebels pushing against ISIS seem also not all to be very big fans of human rights. The British based Syrian Observatory reported that both sides summarily execute captured of their opponents, moderate rebels have presented bodies of people and claimed ISIS did it, but later the dead proved at least to be in part executed ISIS figthers, and the Observatory also published that some moderate rebels have taken hostage the sister and the mother of an ISIS commander and raped the mother to punish ISIS. ISIS for their part sent about a dozen SVBIEDs attacking their opponents in the last days.

The hospital in Raqqa announced yesterday people should come to try to identify the dead because it has 70 unidentified bodies. But that's not the end. Today the Ahrar Al Sham rebel group claimed ISIS just executed more than 100 of their members in Raqqa.

Here are some headlines:

Reuters: Group linked to al Qaeda regains ground in northeast Syria

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/12/us-syria-crisis-qaeda-idUSBREA0B0JD20140112

CNN: Nearly 700 killed in Syria rebel infighting

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/12/world/meast/syria-violence/

Al Jazeera: Syrian troops push towards Aleppo city

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/01/syrian-troops-push-towards-aleppo-area-2014112105719722237.html

A hard battle seems to be currently also going on in the city Saraqib in Idlib province, where western backed rebels just make a push to dislodge about maybe a 1000 ISIS guys. However some other rebels seem trying to send some heavy reinforcements to ISIS in Saraqib:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/SBEM7V5Z21o

To make it short: that all looks like a big bloody mess.

[Allen Thomson]

Oh, good, I was hoping that we'd get an open thread. Which allows me to ask y'all what to think about these recent solicitations on www.fbo.gov. They look kind of interesting in light of current events in, what else, the Near East, but OTOH could be pretty routine business as usual.

http://tinyurl.com/puek96c
Solicitation Number: W15QKN13T8515 July 18 2013, asks for

1. 2,000,000 each 7.62x39mm Ball, delivered to Camp Stanley in Boerne, TX(*)
2. 550,000 each 7.62x39mm Ball, delivered to Blue Grass Army Depot
3. 575,000 each 7.62x39mm Blank, delivered to Blue Grass Army Depot
4. 425,000 each 9x18mm Ball, delivered to Blue Grass Army Depot

http://tinyurl.com/ntuoaqm
Solicitation Number W15QKN13T8513 29 July 2013, asks for

592,825 (approx) AK Rifle Magazines, 7.62x39mm Caliber, New Production, 30 Round Capacity

(*) I note that Camp Stanley may have facilitated past CIA weapons transfers to friendly parties. Dunno about the Blue Grass Army Depot.

[Allen Thomson]

Oh, good, I was hoping that we'd get an open thread. Which allows me to ask y'all what to think about these recent solicitations on www.fbo.gov. They look kind of interesting in light of current events in, what else, the Near East, but OTOH could be pretty routine business as usual.

http://tinyurl.com/puek96c
Solicitation Number: W15QKN13T8515 July 18 2013, asks for

1. 2,000,000 each 7.62x39mm Ball, delivered to Camp Stanley in Boerne, TX(*)
2. 550,000 each 7.62x39mm Ball, delivered to Blue Grass Army Depot
3. 575,000 each 7.62x39mm Blank, delivered to Blue Grass Army Depot
4. 425,000 each 9x18mm Ball, delivered to Blue Grass Army Depot

http://tinyurl.com/ntuoaqm
Solicitation Number W15QKN13T8513 29 July 2013, asks for

592,825 (approx) AK Rifle Magazines, 7.62x39mm Caliber, New Production, 30 Round Capacity

(*) I note that Camp Stanley may have facilitated past CIA weapons transfers to friendly parties. Dunno about the Blue Grass Army Depot.

[Ramojus]

Thoughts regarding the death of Ariel Sharon?

Regarding Sabra and Shatila, I considered him an unrepentant war criminal; but later on, with the withdrawal of Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip, I found him to be enigmatic.

At least he's been finally released from his "prison" of the last seven years. A deserving penance?

[William R. Cumming]

It is clear to me that Governor Christie will NOT be the Republican nominee in 2016! Dead man walking?

[At The Virginia Capes]

As we are coming into the centenary of the "War to End All Wars," the BCC has a continuing series on World War I at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww1
Interesting reading.

[Tyler]

That's a whole lot of eastern bloc ammo, especially the Makarov stuff.

[Alba Etie]

Would refer you to the Central Texas Bee Rescue folks here in Central Texas - they are a pretty good resource . A non profit group very active here - they might be able to put you in contact with a local apiarist .

[Fred]

Any sailboat update? I remember that yacht listing from a year back. Last week's 15 below weather definitely put me in the mood to get back to a warmer climate.

[r whitman]

Six months old. Contracts have probably been awarded, shipped and dispersed to the ultimate destination by now. Could be that contract changes have been issued by now to increase the amount.

[Charles]

Tyler,
My apologies to the Bard but I cannot resist.

To bee or not to bee?

Regards,

[Basilisk]

Thanks for that, Neil. More remedial reading.

[dan bradburd]

Neil,

I agree with her view. I have found that mixing both journalism and locally produced fiction with scholarly works helps my students understand the local terrain--as does good ethnography.

[different clue]

I remember reading somewhere that he de-occupied Gaza unilaterally with zero consultation with the PNA depsite its pleadings and warnings to leave mazimum political chaos and vacuum behind. He hoped Hamas would take over Gaza and the deep geographic and political split between Hamas and the PNA would render Palestine too divided and internally gridlocked to pursue independence successfully.

[different clue]

Here is an article from The American Conservative about how Boeing's leadership has spent the last few decades transferring its plane-making technology knowledge and wisdom to Japanese aerospace companies. The author suspects Boeing's executives will end up turning Boeing into a mere retailer and semi-assembler of Japanese (and other) aerospace products. If the author's concerns are well placed, why would the Boeing leadership do such a thing?
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/boeing-goes-to-pieces/

[Thomas]

A background story on current contestants in the Caliph Competition which includes a player called Bandar Bin Shaalan.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/al-qaeda-leaks-baghdadi-and-golani-fight-over-levant-emirate

http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/new-isis-leaks-reveal-particulars-of-al-qaida-strategy/

[SAC Brat]

Good article but the comments section have a lot of folks arguing based on beliefs. They will be very unhappy when they find out Airbus doesn't believe in magic beans like American companies do. My experience has been that outsourcing only saves money on the Powerpoint presentations, and leads to hideous quality feedback loops to deal with, like what has been experience with the 787 program.

[different clue]

I was hoping the article would be good. It "seemed" good but I lacked the background to know for sure. Maybe I will go back and read their comments to see what a pack of belief-based arguments looks like.

[different clue]

After thinking further, I think the article addressed Boeing's 787 failure only slightly. I think the article's main concern was that Japan itself could do a lot of these things right, and will do more and more right, and that Boeing is relentlessly giving all its best and most secret thingmaking technology to Japan. Boeing is systematically packing itself into crates and shipping itself to Japan. The article writer fears there will be nothing left of Boeing in America but the nameplate and some Mexican maquiladora-style final assembly plants. If I have understood the article correctly, this would seem to be a bigger danger than Boeing suffering bad outcomes from badly made parts and subassemblies from outsourced-to suppliers. Airbus, by contrast, seems to be placing its own survival and national duty to its European home countries first.

Of course I stand correctible if I got the article wrong.

[Jane]

Christie's administration rolled the dice with respect to the lives of others. The decision to cast the dice is what is beyond the pale, not how the dice fell.

[Walrus]

With respect, the article is twaddle. I've been involved in some oF these deals myself. The fact is that the development costs of new aircraft and engines are simply,notorious huge even for Boeing. The current practice is that up to Ten partners engage in a project and each pays a chunk of the development costs in exchange for the right to be sole provider to Boeing(or say GE) of that section of engine or aircraft for the life of the design. The development is still done by a Boeing or GE who have (and do not transfer) the critical know how. The production know how on the other hand will generally reside with the component manufacturer which is as it should be and in any case all such contracts give access to that IP to a Boeing if they ask for it.

For example, double cut plunge grinding of turbine blade roots was developed here in Melbourne which doubled production rates and accuracy for critical turbine blades. GE made us give it all to them for nothing under an offset contract.

[Maureen Lang]

An excellent series chock full of photos & contemporary accounts of the times.

From my personal point of view, worth it for the internal music links alone. Thanks for posting your link to it.

[Tyler]

No sweat, I'm just looking for someone to shoot the breeze with about my newest hobby and to compare notes with.