Saturday Shorts

Lot of quickies today. (If only…)

The robbery at the Louvre was spectacular, fast, and over $100,000,000 worth was stolen in minutes. Interesting factoid has emerged since then – turns out the Louvre CCTV system is password protected, as it should be. But, as always, natural stupidity trumps any artificial intelligence. Their supersecret complex password? LOUVRE. Ya just can’t make this up.  CNN

The Law of Unintended Consequences is immutable.  Florida passed a law in June that street painting that did not help with traffic laws, flow etc. needed to go away. This did what the law’s drafters wanted, and three rainbow Pride crossings have to come out. A memorial to those fallen over seas in Iraq and Afghanistan started in 2007 by Veterans for Peace as 4,000 small replica tombstones, which by war’s end grew to 7,000 ‘stones’. After the Afghan withdrawal, the ‘gravestones’ were taken out but the curb along the memorial was painted purple (for Purple Hearts.) Now it will need to be repainted, presumably white. Hate to lose anything which might remind people of those who died for them. (The article at Military.com might have been more effective if the original writer could spell DeSantis.)

Missing soldiers have to be reported sooner now – commanders have only 3 hours to report a soldier as missing and issue a BOLO to local authorities within 48, and report if they think evidence shows a likelihood of self-harm. Previous policy was regarded as a bit lethargic.

The change follows years of criticism after high-profile cases, like the disappearance of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén, exposed systemic failures in the Army’s response to missing soldiers. Guillén vanished from a Texas base in 2020 and the Army was initially criticized for perceived lack of urgency around the case.  Army Times

Could be worse – I’ve seen places where 3 hours late to work was AWOL and 24 hours missing was classified as desertion.

A few days ago I told you about a drone version of a Blackhawk which could be flown by non-pilots on the ground? They seem to have done a pretty slick job on them:

A U.S. Army National Guardsman with no previous aviation background learned to successfully maneuver Sikorsky’s optionally piloted Black Hawk helicopter in less than an hour, according to a company release.

In a training first,the Guardsman, using a handheld touchscreen tablet, controlled the Optionally Piloted Vehicle Black Hawk and planned its tasks during Exercise Northern Strike 25-2, a large, biannual multinational exercise sponsored by the National Guard Bureau that took place in Michigan this August.

Additional first-time demonstrations that took place during the exercise included delivering airborne troops to drop zones at different altitudes and a simulated medical evacuation, the release noted. The airborne drop exercise saw the helicopter perform a back-to-back action while controlled by the Guardsman operating the OPV from a Coast Guard vessel over 70 nautical miles away on Lake Huron. After ordering the helicopter to unload cargo, the soldier then used it to drop airborne troops.  Defense News

Impressive. Still not sure I want to climb on board that drone though – I’ve seen the Army sense of humor in action. I don’t want to see someone try to fly one inverted for fun.

Sesame Solar has debuted an interesting system –  a solar powered electrolysis station which provides hydrogen from atmospheric moisture and enable their hydrogen powered drones to operate in remote areas for up to six  MONTHS without fuel resupply. Plus, their hydrogen powered drones have a lower heat and acoustic signature (read: stealthier) so they are harder to detect, and can fly up to 8 hours at a time, which is several times what a battery powered drone can do. Plus it only requires one person to operate. Milityary.com II

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Army, Crime, Science and Technology