Stupid people of the week

The KC-46. The biggest financial boondoggle since the last big financial boondoggle. One of the plane’s fancy new technologies is, instead of a window at the back of the plane for the boomer to look out of, it uses cameras, 3D glasses, and monitors instead. A $1B solution to a non-existent problem.

After years of KC-46 vision system troubles, Boeing thinks its finally cracked the code

In May 2018, a group of defense reporters visited Boeing’s KC-46 manufacturing plant here in Everett, Wash., just months after the Air Force disclosed a major problem with a critical system that provides imagery to boom operators during the refueling process.

The message imparted by Boeing officials then was simple: A software fix, which would be available in months, was all that was needed to right the system.

At the time Air Force officials vehemently and publicly disagreed, and, it turned out, Boeing was wrong. The issue was more severe and would take far longer to rectify. After two more years of sometimes heated disputes with the Air Force, including a stern letter from the service’s top general to Boeing’s chief executive, the company agreed in May 2020 to completely redesign the KC-46’s Remote Vision System on its own dime.

Now, the company is ready to show off an early prototype of what it’s calling the Remote Vision System 2.0, giving a glimpse of it to a handful of reporters who were invited back to Everett on Dec. 20. And although the technology on view exhibited a major step up from the legacy system, the visit also highlighted a defrosting in the relationship between the Air Force and Boeing, with officials from the Air Force’s KC-46 program office and the operational community taking part in the tour to share their overwhelmingly positive thoughts on RVS 2.0.

RVS 2.0 provides a “quantum leap” in camera technology, said Lt. Col. Joshua Renfro of the Air Force’s KC-46 cross functional team. “We’re very confident in the product. We like where it’s going, and we really like what this is going to deliver to us down the road,” he told reporters during the visit. (Breaking Defense accepted travel and hotel accommodations from Boeing.)

James Burgess, Boeing’s vice president for the KC-46 program, acknowledged that the relationship between Boeing and the Air Force hit a rough spot after numerous technical problems were identified during testing, with the disagreement over how to fix RVS emerging as “most significant” source of friction between the two. However, “I think the approach that the company has taken with RVS 2.0 has really helped to restore it back to a very healthy, productive partnership,” he said.

More at the source. Breaking Defense

Missouri woman tracks down, kills alleged carjackers at gas station

Police arrested a Missouri woman after she tracked down her stolen car and killed two men outside a gas station for the alleged theft.

Demesha Coleman, 35, was charged Thursday with two counts of murder, one count of assault and three counts of armed criminal action after shooting and killing Darius Jackson, 19, and Joseph Farrar, 49.

Police found Farrar next to a gas pump with a gunshot to the torso and Jackson was on the ground next to the car, also shot in the torso.

A third man sustained a gunshot to the head during the shootout, but survived, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It remains unclear which of the three men, if any, may have stolen the vehicle.

Coleman approached a Hyundai Tucson at a St. Louis Speedie Gas station Wednesday night with a man who was also carrying a weapon, police said after examining surveillance footage. Coleman opened the door with her gun raised and started shooting.

Coleman told detectives during a recorded interview that she went to the gas station to recover her stolen vehicle. She had no prior criminal history.

Coleman comes from the Spanish Lake area of St. Louis County.

Source; Yahoo!

Bungling bandit slips on ice, hits head during attempted armed robbery on Christmas

A bungling Gainesville bandit has about as much luck trying to rob a Gainesville employee on Christmas as the Wet Bandits did in Home Alone.

Gainesville police said that around 1 a.m. Dec. 25, an armed robber pulled a gun on an employee walking out of a business and demanded cash.

The robber has since been identified as 30-year-old Luis Sajbocho-Ordonez.

Police said that Sajbocho and the employee were fighting when another employee exited the building, spooking Sajbochoz, who fired his gun and ran.

The bullet didn’t hit anyone, but Sajbocho wasn’t so lucky. As he tried to run away, Sajbocho-Ordonez slipped on a patch of ice and hit his head on the ground. Witnesses were able to wrestle two guns away from him as he lay on the ground injured.

Police took Sajbocho into custody and emergency crews were able to treat his injuries on the scene. He was taken to jail, where he was charged with armed robbery and aggravated assault.

“Like a scene from Home Alone,” Gainesville police wrote. “Fortunately, no serious injuries occurred and the perp went to jail.”

Source; Yahoo!

Florida cop Gregory Damon fired for dragging handcuffed woman into jail

More a stupid administrator here than a stupid cop.

A Florida police officer was fired this week after being caught on video dragging a handcuffed woman into jail, authorities said.

Gregory Damon was let go by the Tampa Police Department on Tuesday following an internal investigation, the agency said.

Damon became the center of a scandal when he and other officers responded to the Tampa Family Health Center on Nov. 17 and arrested a woman who was sleeping outside the property and refused to leave.

The same woman, who has not been identified, was previously given a warning and arrested by Damon for trespassing at the same spot in October, police said.

Bodycam footage of the woman’s arrival at Orient Road Jail shows her refusing to exit the squad car. She is heard yelling “I want you to drag me!” at Damon, who subsequently grabbed her arm and pulled her across the parking lot.

Police said that the detainee was not injured during the event.

Source; NY Post

U.K. medical practice mistakenly texts patients they have “aggressive lung cancer” instead of wishing them a merry Christmas

A medical practice in England intended to text its patients wishes for a “very merry Christmas.” Instead, the mass text told patients they had “aggressive lung cancer” that had spread and asked them to fill out a form for terminal patients.

The mass text from Askern Medical Practice in Doncaster was sent out on December 23, according to the BBC. In it, the practice says that the doctor has asked the recipient to fill out a form DS1500 – which according another U.K. hospital system is meant for people who have a terminal illness to apply for benefits. The text also tells recipients they have been diagnosed with “aggressive lung cancer with metastases.”

In a second text, patients were asked to accept the center’s “sincere apologies.”

“This has been sent in error,” it states. “Our message to you should have read We wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”

The center, which has roughly 8,000 patients according to the BBC, has not publicly commented on the mishap. The practice’s last news release, issued in September, recognized the “excellent feedback from patients regarding telephone consultations.”

Carl Chegwin told the BBC that his mother was one of the patients who received the text.

“The first thing I thought was, ‘is this some kind of sick joke?” Chegwin said. “It completely took me by surprise. … They’ve just told people a few days before Christmas they’ve got terminal lung cancer. They can’t do that.”

Another woman who asked not to be named told the outlet that the text made her “very worried,” as some of her family members had recently undergone tests for chest issues. She also saw several other people panicking about the message.

“I rang the doctors but on hold as usual. So I walked round as I live around the corner and there were, I’d say, six people all there panicking as they had got the same text,” she said.

The National Health Service of the U.K., which oversees publicly funded health care, has also not commented on the situation. The same day the texts went out, the service unrelatedly tweeted, “Be kind to yourself if you are grieving,” alongside information about how to cope with grief during the holiday season.

“What if the message was meant for someone, and then they are told it’s a Christmas message, then again told, ‘oh no, that was actually meant for you,'” Chegwin said. “If it’s one of their admins that’s sent out a mass text, I wouldn’t be trusting them to empty the bins.”

Source; CBS News

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Air Force, Crime, Stupid Criminals