Assholes of the Week: The Myanmar Ruling Junta

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military regime distributed international aid Saturday but plastered the boxes with the names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort for last week's devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.

The United Nations sent in three more planes and several trucks loaded with aid, though the junta took over its first two shipments. The government agreed to let a U.S. cargo plane bring in supplies Monday, but foreign disaster experts were still being barred entry.

State-run television continuously ran images of top generals — including the junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe — handing out boxes of aid to survivors at elaborate ceremonies.

[From Myanmar junta hands out aid boxes with generals' names - Yahoo! News]

This is far beyond irrational. First their country gets slaughtered by a natural disaster. Then they refuse the free flow of aid workers, and refuse the shipping of help shipments. Why? Probably paranoia that the powers-that-be are going to try to use the disaster as an excuse to topple the junta.
Then they allow aid flights, but confiscate the material. Why? This one puzzled everyone, until now. The aid was eventually distributed, only plastered with pro-regime propaganda.
This is just plain dumb. All they had to do was allow the shipments, then after the aid was distributed use their monopoly on communications to claim that it was the regime that helped their people. The UN gets to help people in need, the local ruling group gets to save face, and the victims get some relief. Everyone wins.
But no. With fatality figures approaching the 500,000 mark in a country with an estimated population of almost 48 million, these people decide to run a political exercise.
Assholes.
The sad thing is that with China sharing a 2,000 Km border, it makes you wonder why the Chinese haven't sent a subtle word to these people to get their acts together and stop drawing so much attention to the area. They are just probably straddling the fence, seeing how this mess develops to see how THEY can take advantage of it.

MADD v. Grand Theft Auto IV

GTA 4 barely launched and the politics have already started. The problem is when good intentions clash with misinformation. I support MADD 100%, they are one of those precious few special interest groups (yeah, MADD is an interest group) that are no brainers: drunk driving kills.

The problem this time? Somebody at MADD did not bother to play the game before they put out their official stand against the game. Had anyone bothered to play the game first, they would had noticed that "drunk" mode in GTA 4 is a complete pain in the ass. I tried it last night and for the first few minutes I could not even play, the screen shook so much that I was a hair away from motion sickness. And even after the character felt like he had sobered up, within seconds of getting into the car it was already surrounded by cops. I don't know how the hell one can hit drunk mode and actually drive more than a street or three.

Politics are funny

These are my results from the survey at http://www.politicalcompass.org :

The idea here is that a left/right plot is not good enough, and that the historic left/right alignment is actually an economics measure, so they added the second variable for Authoritarian v. Libertarian. It gets interesting because the survey is designed to take into account your subconscious efforts to tweak your answers so they fit what you think is your political stance. I tried to, and I failed.

This is their sample plot with some historical figures for comparison:

UPDATE: Brad just answered the survey too.

South Korea to use cloned dogs to sniff for drugs and explosives

INCHEON, South Korea: The country that created the world's first cloned canine plans to put duplicated dogs on patrol to sniff out drugs and explosives.

The Korean Customs Service unveiled Thursday seven cloned Labrador retrievers being trained near Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. The dogs were born five to six months ago after being separately cloned from a skilled drug-sniffing canine in active service.

Due to the difficulties in finding dogs who are up to snuff for the critical jobs, officials said using clones could help reduce costs.

[From South Korea to use cloned dogs to sniff for drugs and explosives - International Herald Tribune]

I had tuned out these cloning-related news in the past because they all seemed to focus in pure academic research and the morons that oppose it without as much as trying to read the description of what is it that the scientists are trying to do. I have no idea if this is the first mainstream announcement about cloning animals for a practical purpose, but if it is I hope they get away with it.

Of course, this is the kind of thing that we can't do in the United States. Even if the dogs in question were trained as guides for the blind, or as rescue dogs, a political element in this country will effectively seize the opportunity to crush the scientists simply to make a few cheap headlines.

This is a real world application to a controversial scientific discipline, not one more attempt of soulless Science trying to destroy God, or whatever the hell is it that these people think cloning is all about.

I am eagerly awaiting for South Korean scientists to find the perfect pig with the perfect body composition for maximum bacon processing. Then it can be cloned and we can solve world hunger with delicious bacon.

My Way News - Gates Orders Inventory of US Nukes

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a full inventory of all nuclear weapons and related materials after the mistaken delivery of ballistic missile fuses to Taiwan, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Gates told officials with the Air Force, Navy and Defense Logistics Agency to assess inventory control procedures for the materials and to submit a report within 60 days.

Earlier this week, Gates directed Navy Adm. Kirkland H. Donald to take charge of a full investigation of the delivery mistake in which four cone-shaped electrical fuses used in intercontinental ballistic missile warheads were shipped to the Taiwanese instead of the helicopter batteries they had ordered.

[From My Way News - Gates Orders Inventory of US Nukes]

This is one of these things that you never heard of back when I was in the service in the 90's. From the day we put on the uniform it was burned into our brains that all of our equipment must be accounted for at all times. The company commander basically signs for every item within his command, down to each trash can, chair, etc.

One of the classic punishments for misbehaving lieutenants was to have them re-inventory everything, starting with the office supplies closet.

The more sensitive the item, the more controls are put into it. If they could get away with it, they would have us count spent brass before we turned it in before leaving a firing range. If the item was remotely classified, then you had to push a LOT of paper because of each individual item. This was institutional, you couldn't just say screw it, I am not going to document it.

Fast forward to the late 2000s, and suddenly people are fucking up, either by accident, incompetence or dereliction. How are we expected to believe that something as sensitive as these fuses can simply be misplaced during a foreign transfer? It is not like the damn things were sitting in a shelf at an airport and somebody picked the wrong boxes. Or maybe they were?

Letter from the Editor: The Passport Breach Scandal

By now most of my readers have learned that some people within the U.S. Department of State have improperly accessed the passport records of some of the current presidential candidates.

Searching Google News for "presidential candidate passport breach" yields 2,239 results.

We would like to let our readers know that my passport records at the Department of State have NEVER been breached. Of this we are 100% confident, but we decline to disclose our source for this information since this mess is in full blast.

Comcast: FCC lacks any authority to act on P2P blocking

The man who spoke for Comcast at Harvard last month has told the Federal Communications Commission that the agency has no legal power to stop the cable giant from engaging in what it calls "network management practices" (critics call it peer-to-peer traffic blocking). Comcast vice president David L. Cohen's latest filing with the Commission claims that regulators can do nothing even if they conclude that Comcast's behavior runs afoul of the FCC's Internet neutrality guidelines.

"The congressional policy and agency practice of relying on the marketplace instead of regulation to maximize consumer welfare has been proven by experience (including the Comcast customer experience) to be enormously successful," concludes Cohen's thinly-veiled warning to the FCC, filed on March 11. "Bearing these facts in mind should obviate the need for the Commission to test its legal authority."

[From Comcast: FCC lacks any authority to act on P2P blocking]

In other words, "Fuck the FCC."
That's the funny thing about common sense: you can't teach it. If you find a loophole in federal law, why brag about it? All you are going to do is draw attention to yourself and the loophole, and before you know it, the loophole will be closed.
Do you really think that a government agency is going to let a private company give them that UFIA out in the open? And in an election year?
Of course not.
Here's what I don't understand: why act so bold when they are no longer the only game in town when it comes to broadband? Here in North Virginia they are still strutting around as if they own Fairfax County. Seems their suits haven't figured out that Verizon has been selling FIOS here for a while.
The other thing I can't understand is their billing. Every month the bill is different, and my tiers never come out straight. Are these people actually interested in making money? The one thing I know for sure is once I call them to tell them about my new FIOS line they'll start throwing discounts at me, as if it is going to make a god damn difference.

FCC spectrum auction is completed with $19.6 bln in bids - MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A sale of communications airwaves by the federal government to the commercial wireless industry closed Tuesday, after 261 rounds of bidding and $19.6 billion in bids.
The end of the auction means that, within a short period of time, the Federal Communications Commission will reveal who the winners of the valuable radio spectrum licenses are, and where in the country they acquired airwaves.
The proceeding was conducted on a blind-bidding basis, which means that, throughout the sale, bidders have been anonymous. The FCC put this in place after some potential participants in the auction argued it would enhance competition.

[From FCC spectrum auction is completed with $19.6 bln in bids - MarketWatch]

As one of the many customers that made the jump from analog to digital, which is what allowed this bidding to happen, I would like to say the following:
"Where's my cut?"
And by cut I don't mean two discount coupons to buy ATSC tuner boxes.
Actually, I don't care, I was hoping they would make like bandits. Now I hope they can take that freed up bandwidth and do something creative with it, maybe solve the last mile problem for rural america once and for all.

Costs soar for Marine One fleet - Washington Post- msnbc.com

A year after Sept. 11, 2001, the White House set out to build a fleet of state-of-the-art Marine One helicopters for the al-Qaeda age that would be safer, faster and more reliable than the iconic white-topped aircraft that have landed on the South Lawn for decades.

But the al-Qaeda age has met the military acquisition process. Six years later, the cost of the new helicopters has nearly doubled, production has fallen behind schedule, and the bulk of the program has been put on hold while the government tries to figure out how to salvage it.

[From Costs soar for Marine One fleet - Washington Post- msnbc.com]

My very first reaction was that was just one more sign that the Republicans were going to lose the White House ("no shiny new helos for the next guy!"). The amusement at how funny I thought I was quickly went away once I saw that each of these new helicopters costs more than the last Boeing VC-25.

Yes, a helicopter that costs more than the most exclusive VIP airplane in the world. This is actually a good thing, because it shows, with extremes, how much dangerous helicopters are in comparison to fixed wing aircraft. This is of course a blanket assumption, but think about it: Air Force One is already ultra-secure, as secure as we can make it to protect the current President plus an entourage of hundreds, yet it costs more money to build just one helicopter to carry him and maybe a dozen people total with a reasonable degree of security.

If you would like a very quick explanation on why helicopters are much more dangerous than fixed wing aircraft, take a look at Phil Greenspun's take on the subject.

Photo Credit: Photo by culhanen, used under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

Music Industry Proposes a Piracy Surcharge on ISPs

Having failed to stop piracy by suing internet users, the music industry is for the first time seriously considering a file sharing surcharge that internet service providers would collect from users.

In recent months, some of the major labels have warmed to a pitch by Jim Griffin, one of the idea's chief proponents, to seek an extra fee on broadband connections and to use the money to compensate rights holders for music that's shared online. Griffin, who consults on digital strategy for three of the four majors, will argue his case at what promises to be a heated discussion Friday at South by Southwest.

[From Music Industry Proposes a Piracy Surcharge on ISPs]

This is the stupidest idea in the still short history of stupid ideas in regards to online piracy. For starters, why is everyone getting taxed? What would happen if the feds said "you know what? Let's make everyone with a driver's license pay $5 a year to pay for people that don't get caught speeding..."?


There would be riots.

Here in the Commonwealth of Virginia we went up in arms simply because they asked us to pay more money as the moving violation got worse.

Also, wouldn't this legalize all online piracy? After all, if we are paying the $5, it means that the owner of the copyright is not suffering damages, right? Not so fast, because this piracy surcharge would only affect music piracy, they are not collecting the $5 to pay Microsoft for all of the Vista licenses being pirated, or Vivid for all of the porn sales that they lose to piracy.
Nope, it is all about the music.

How much do you want to bet that somewhere in a dusty desk drawer there is a music sales market research study that says that, with zero piracy, the average US household would consume $5 in music CDs every month?

Dumbasses.

Photo Credit: Photo by ndh, used under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

Cut Abercrombie name from ER, advocates say - CNN.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A children's advocacy group wants to keep a children's hospital from putting clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch's name on a new emergency room.
art.hospital.ap.jpg

The children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio, is named for Nationwide Insurance Co.

Abercrombie, known for its racy marketing campaigns aimed at teenagers, has pledged $10 million toward the construction of the emergency department at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.

The Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood on Tuesday urged the hospital to drop any plans to put Abercrombie's name on the project, pointing to research that has shown a link between sexualized images of teens in the media and mental health problems in girls.

The advocacy group made its position public in a letter to the hospital Tuesday that was signed by about 70 pediatricians and academics from around the United States.

"Given this company's appalling history of targeting children with sexualized marketing and clothing, no public health institution should be advertising Abercrombie & Fitch," the letter states.

[From Cut Abercrombie name from ER, advocates say - CNN.com]

Paraphrased: "Please let us keep the $10 million without us giving you any kind of god damn credit. Thanks."

Maybe this is all a communications disconnect, I bet they were confused by the difference between the Hippocratic Oath and Hypocrisy. This is what happens when people freak out over stupid things and don't bother to try to think them through. A smart person would had first tried to find an acceptable donor to match the $10 million, then worry about bitching and whining about Abercrombie & Fitch. This way the hospital only loses a little face, instead of a $10 million donation.

If I was running a competing hospital in the area, I would damn well be on the phone right now calling Abercrombie & Fitch and promising them to STFU if they even send the hospital as little as a quarter of that $10 million promised to Nationwide Children's Hospital. Dumbasses.

Photo Credit: Photo by drewcipher, used under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

Criminalizing Home Schoolers

Parents of the approximately 200,000 home-schooled children in California are reeling from the possibility that they may have to shutter their classrooms — and go back to school themselves — if they want to continue teaching their own kids. On Feb. 28, Judge H. Walter Croskey of the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles ruled that children ages six to 18 may be taught only by credentialed teachers in public or private schools — or at home by Mom and Dad, but only if they have a teaching degree. Citing state law that goes back to the early 1950s, Croskey declared that "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children." Furthermore, the judge wrote, if instructors teach without credentials they will be subject to criminal action.

[From Criminalizing Home Schoolers - TIME]

All other problems in California solved, it is time to go after the real criminals: concerned parents that would rather stay home to supervise the education of their children instead of entrusting them to a crumbling public education system.
Even if across the country from us, the issue strikes too close to home:
1. One of my best friends home schooled her children for as long as acceptable education choices were available for her family.
2. My mother taught me how to read at a very early age, and made sure I was studying on my own regardless of the weak public schools education in my neighborhood. My brother was luckier, since by the time he started school there was at least one private school available, but no escape for him: my mom was one of the teachers. By the time these schools opened I was too far in to benefit from private school, so I only spent a summer taking courses ahead at a private school elsewhere.
The sad thing is that this is probably a way to force home schooling parents to go through some kind of certification nightmare.

Hearing loss is silent epidemic in U.S. troops

SAN DIEGO - Large numbers of soldiers and Marines caught in roadside bombings and firefights in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming home with permanent hearing loss and ringing in their ears, prompting the military to redouble its efforts to protect the troops from noise.

Hearing damage is the No. 1 disability in the war on terror, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and some experts say the true toll could take decades to become clear. Nearly 70,000 of the more than 1.3 million troops who have served in the two war zones are collecting disability for tinnitus, a potentially debilitating ringing in the ears, and more than 58,000 are on disability for hearing loss, the VA said.

[From Hearing loss is silent epidemic in U.S. troops - More health news- msnbc.com]

It's actually worse than that, since these statistics are only taking into account combat veterans that suffered damage related to either explosions, weapons fire or heavy equipment. They don't include those of us that spent our service in equipment control rooms with heavy levels of white noise that resulted in loss of hearing within particular frequency ranges.
Yes, I am including myself. I was handed a pair of earplugs during my in-processing at Fort Jackson, South Carolina when I joined the US. Army. These earplugs were color coded, each style fit a different kind of ear canal. Mine were orange and very painful to insert (you basically shoved them into the ear canal). We used these for two things: shooting and working around generators and other obviously loud equipment.
Nobody ever told us about the white noise, and it is something that most people just can't tell because it is very low.
In my case, I did not notice how loud our operations center in Germany was until the one time in my tour that we actually shut the whole place down. They had improved our commercial electricity power, and they wanted to feed us from two separate power grids in addition to the emergency generator grid. All that power is run through a complex power control system, but it is hardwired for one commercial grid, one generator grid. In order to upgrade us to having two commercial grids they had us shut completely down.
For about 8 hours we sat in that building with the air conditioning turned off, and just flash lights. The silence was horrible, it felt like a tomb. That is when most of us realized how loud that place was. Just imagine a few thousand square feet full of computers, server racks, etc. Each server rack has one or two fans. There are a half dozen commercial grade air conditioners scattered around. The floor is raised two feet, and air runs under the tiles.
Day in and day out, the whole place hums, and your brain filters it out, but your ears take the damage.
When I left the service, my very first civilian job had more or less the same arrangement, except that the controllers sat in a part that was more or less isolated from the equipment room. As long as we kept the doors closed, it was fine. Two jobs later, my boss had metal racks with about eight Dell half tower servers, with at least two UPS units. I have no idea how she could stand sitting there for more than a few minutes.

The One Finger Salute

I have a "legacy" friend from my AOL days from a decade ago, the kind that forwards every chain letter to me. Over the years I taught her to check with me first before hitting forward and dumping the emails into her full address book, and from that she learned how to look them up on her own.

The end result is I still get plenty of chain letters from her, but they tend to be more interesting because they are usually true or close to the truth. In this case, she sent me a photo from the Omaha World-Herald, of USMC Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt flipping the bird at insurgents in the area as he walked away after surviving a remotely controlled explosion.

Sergeant Burghardt was on recovery for three weeks and was eager to return to duty.

Photo is (c) The Omaha World-Herald.

US lawmakers blast Boeing defense contract snub

US lawmakers have reacted angrily after the US military awarded a 35-billion-dollar aircraft deal to Europe's Northrop Grumman/EADS group, in a major blow to US manufacturers Boeing.
"It's stunning to me that we would outsource the production of these airplanes to Europe instead of building them in America," said Republican Senator Sam Brownback about the Pentagon's decision.

"I'll be calling upon the Secretary of Defense for a full debriefing and expect there will be a protest of the award by Boeing."

[From US lawmakers blast Boeing defense contract snub]

In other words, "how dare they add these 5,000 jobs to Alabama instead of Kansas! Oh, the insanity!"

The only reason that Brownback is mad about this deal is because the pork is going to Alabama and not Kansas. Even more, we are not just talking about building 179 tankers. Nope, the baseline is to run through 179 aircraft through the life of the contract, but they are also opening the possibility of commercial aircraft work. This is a huge deal for an industry that for a while has centered around Boeing.
Ain't competition a bitch?

Northrop Grumman gets $40B deal to replace Air Force tankers - CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Air Force on Friday announced one of the largest military acquisition programs in U.S. history, saying the service had chosen Northrop Grumman over Boeing to replace its aging air refueling tanker fleet.

"We look forward to partnering with them as we continue to defend our great nation in the future," said Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne.

The announcement was a surprise to many in the business industry who expected Boeing to be favored over the company, which will use a European company's airframe, Airbus, for the tanker.

The $40 billion deal to start replacing 179 tankers -- known as the KC-45A program -- will expand to over $100 billion to replace the entire fleet of almost 500 planes, Pentagon officials said.

Boeing proposed a tanker based on its 767 commercial airliner, while Northrop -- working with Boeing arch-rival Airbus and its parent company, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) -- offered a model based on the Airbus A330 airliner, which is larger than the 767.

[From Northrop Grumman gets $40B deal to replace Air Force tankers - CNN.com]

Build a plant in Alabama, and they will let you build foreign jets to sell to the USAF. You can almost see the high fives from everyone that had to fight over this huge pork barrel. I bet the NATO countries (a few of which are part of Airbus) are going to be delighted that when the time comes for "foreign" sales they will in reality be selling these planes to themselves. Yay!
I actually would feel better if some of these $100 million could be re-routed to buy more MRAPs for the Marines. After all, how many long range bombing and surveillance missions (that require air refueling) are we doing every day nowadays?

$40 billion Air Force tanker deal expected - CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Air Force is expected to announce this week a $40 billion contract to replace its aging fleet of air refueling tankers, a process which has been mired in corruption and political wrangling for years.
art.fleet.jpg

The U.S. Air Force is expected to announce that it's replacing its aging tanker fleet.

Two groups are competing for the project known as the KC-X program -- Boeing and Northrop Grumman.

Boeing is proposing a tanker based on its 767 commercial airliner. Northrop, working with Boeing arch-rival Airbus and its parent company, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, is offering a model based on the Airbus A330 airliner.

To sweeten the deal, EADS announced it would put a plane assembly plant in Alabama if the company wins the contract.

[From $40 billion Air Force tanker deal expected - CNN.com]

With contract options added, we are talking a cool $100 billion.
By the way, the "to sweeten the deal..." issue with EADS building a plant in Alabama can be easily translated to "it's the only shot we got at selling an Airbus to the USAF."
I am also disappointed in how CNN failed to notice that this deal would easily reach beyond tankers. That airframe is a no brainer for a strategic airlift plane and even as an AWACS platform.

Probe sought in Marine vehicle delays - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps has asked the Pentagon's inspector general to examine allegations that a nearly two-year delay in the fielding of blast-resistant vehicles led to hundreds of combat casualties in Iraq.

The system for rapidly shipping needed gear to troops on the front lines has been examined by auditors before and continues to improve, Col. David Lapan, a Marine Corps spokesman, said Monday night. Due to the seriousness of the allegations, however, "the Marine Corps has taken the additional step" of requesting the IG investigation, Lapan said in an e-mailed statement.

In a Jan. 22 internal report, Franz Gayl, a civilian Marine Corps official, accused the service of "gross mismanagement" that delayed deliveries of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected trucks.

[From Probe sought in Marine vehicle delays - Yahoo! News]

This is less than a week after the allegations were first made public.
What sucks here is that the article completely ignores the fact that the Marines are at the mercy of the U.S. Navy for logistical support. How come nobody is pointing fingers at the Navy and instead try to make it all look like a problem that is self contained within the USMC?

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | North Korea detains Russian ship

A Russian cargo ship has been detained and boarded by armed coastguard agents in North Korean waters, Russian maritime officials say.

The Lida Demesh, carrying a consignment of cars from Japan, was heading for the Russian port of Vladivostok when it was stopped by patrol near Cape Musudan.

No reason was given for the search, but Russian sources said the ship may have gone too close to a missile test site.

A similar incident in 2005 took 15 days to resolve through diplomatic channels.

The ship had sought shelter from a storm in North Korean territorial waters.

[From BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | North Korea detains Russian ship]

The world is going to hell in a hand basket. I am a child of the Cold War. Back in the day you could have taken for granted that all them axis-of-whatever countries played more or less with the same game book. Now the North Koreans are even picking up fights with the Russians.
Of course, what do we know? Was it really a cargo ship? Or maybe it was a covert intelligence gathering ship? What is Dear Leader going to do when Putin takes off his shirt and starts flexing his pecs?

Picture (not related) by .JohnW, used under a Creative Commons License.

Stealth bomber crashes; pilots safe - CNN.com

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) -- A B-2 stealth bomber plunged to the ground shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on Saturday, the first time one crashed, but both pilots ejected safely, Air Force officials said.

A B-2 stealth bomber taxis at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in a 2005 photo.

The aircraft was taking off with three others on their last flight out of Guam after a four-month deployment, part of a continuous U.S. bomber presence in the western Pacific. After the crash, the other three bombers were being kept on Guam, said Maj. Eric Hilliard at Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii.

At least one B-2 bomber had taken off safely from Andersen Air Force Base but was brought back when another aircraft plunged to the ground.

There were no injuries on the ground or damage to buildings, and no munitions were on board. Each B-2 bomber costs about $1.2 billion to build.

[From Stealth bomber crashes; pilots safe - CNN.com]

Are these bombers insured? One would think that a capital expenditure of $1.2 billion would have some kind of financial protection against hazardous duty. At least the crew was unharmed, over the length of their service the pilot and crew will probably cost a nice fraction of that $1.2 billion just in training. Let's see if they will actually blame the crash on a mechanical/electrical failure of the aircraft or if they will instead use the crew as scapegoats.

UPDATE: The whole B2 bomber fleet is now grounded until they can find if it was either pilot error or a problem with the aircraft.

Photo by Beige Alert used under a Creative Commons license.