Showing posts with label Rockets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rockets. Show all posts

May 23, 2021

The Stranger and The Enemy


Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "The Stranger and The Enemy."
In summary, with regards to Israel, we must follow two important commandments that guide our relationships with the outside world. First, there is the imperative to love our neighbor and the stranger. Second is the dictum to wholly defend ourselves from our enemies who seek our destruction. While on the surface these may pose a contradiction, in reality, they do not, because if our neighbors and the strangers among us are willing to live in genuine peace with us then we gladly and actively will extend the olive branch in peace and brotherhood. But if unfortunately, our neighbors are bent on our genocide then we must fight them.
Love and peace is always what we want from the bottom of our hearts, but war is a necessity that is sometimes thrust upon us by our enemies and that we must absolutely, with G-d’s help, win.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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May 13, 2021

Support Israel and the IDF!


 (Photo via Facebook)


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October 8, 2019

Interplanetary Travel - Coming Soon


Awesome presentation on Interplanetary Travel by Charlie Kuehmann, VP Materials Engineering at SpaceX and Tesla. 

Interplanetary travel and colonization is one of the most exciting possibilities for mankind.  

It's all just beginning (we've only been in orbit for about 50 years). 

One of the keys Charlie mentioned at SpaceX and Telsa is how quickly we learn. 

It's okay to fail, as long as we learn quickly and progress from it.  

The progress with reusable rockets at SpaceX is impressive. 

Can't wait for more to come soon.  ;-)

(Credit Video: Andy Blumenthal)
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May 5, 2019

I Watch With Terror The Rockets Fly

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "I Watch With Terror The Rockets Fly."
I watch with terror the rockets fly.
The plumes of white smoke in the sky.
Randomly, randomly where will they fall.
A car, a home, a factory, a kindergarten.
The shrapnel penetrating the flesh of its victims.
The rockets do not know the difference,
Between military and civilian, men and women, children and old.
Please pray for the peace and security for Israel. ;-)

(Source Photo: Reposted here in video by Israel Foreign Affairs Ministry)
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April 28, 2019

Rockville Science Fair - 30th Year!















(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)
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November 26, 2018

Boycott Airbnb

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "Free, Free Israel."
While the Palestinians continue to terrorize Israelis not only with barrages of rockets, terror tunnels, vehicular rammings, shootings, stabbings, and suicide bombings, but also with their advocacy and pressure for a Boycott, Divestiture, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against us. Companies like Airbnb are actually falling for it and joining the terrorists against U.S. ally and friend, the democratic State of Israel.
It's time for Jewish people all over the world to demand "Free, Free Israel" and "End the terrorism!"

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Pixabay)
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January 12, 2015

Laser Defense Offense


Similar to the U.S.'s new laser defense being deployed aboard the USS Ponce in the Gulf, there is a promising new missile defense technology--"Iron Beam"--using lasers from Rafael in Israel. 

This augments Israel's "Iron Dome" anti-missile defense system using intercept missiles. 

Iron Beam functions with air defense radars and thermal camera tracking that identifies incoming targets and uses 2 lasers with 100's of kilowatts of directed energy to destroy the attacking projectiles with 90% success rate. 

For a more surgical, faster, and economically capable military--next up laser defense goes offense. 

It's got to, we've all seen the movie. ;-)
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December 22, 2014

Peace To All Mankind

I liked this post in downtown Washington, D.C. inscribed with the following:

"May Peace Prevail On Earth."

It left me wondering, if Earth includes:

1) ISIS advances into large swathes of Syria and Iraq
2) Taliban attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan including the one that left 132 children dead in a Peshawar school last week.
3) Boko Haram kidnappings and killings in Nigeria including the hundreds of children taken and given as wives to their captors 
4) Al-Shabaab fighting in Somalia including attacks in the capital, Mogadishu
5) Hamas in Gaza and their barrage of rocket attacks on and terror tunnels into Israel
6) Hezbolah in Lebanon as a proxy for Iran-sponsored terror
7) Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and threats to annihilate Israel off the face of the map.
8) Russia in Ukraine and Georgia and ongoing threats to Eastern Europe/NATO.
9) China's military build-up, including nukes, submarines, and anti-satellite weapons.
10) North Korea cyber attack on Sony and threatening "the White House, the Pentagon, and the whole U.S. mainland."

Peace is more than a wish, right now it seems like a dream. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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November 13, 2014

We Didn't Make History

A sincere congratulations to the European Union for the epic landing of a probe from the Rosetta spacecraft--the first such landing on a comet.

They did this with a landing area of just 550 yards in diameter and away from deep crevices, large boulders, and sharp peaks--it is amazing!


Their European space scientists are exclaiming and rightfully so, "We made history today."

The problem for us is that we--the U.S.of A.--didn't!

Yes, we landed the first man on the moon in 1969 and we haven't done it again since 1972.

I remember in grade school, with great pride and wonder, watching the first space shuttle taking flight--that was in 1981.

Since then, we had the horrific Space Shuttle Columbia disaster (2003), followed by the retirement of the shuttles altogether (2011).

Now, we rely on Russian rockets to bring supplies to the International Space Station and for our military and national security satellites.

Then, just a few weeks ago, we had the explosion of Virgin Galactic's SpaceshipTwo (2014) that is said to have been plagued with problems from inadequate rocket thrust, flight control system issues, and deficiencies in basic structural integrity. 

In the meantime, the Indians have made it to Mars on a dime. 

Where are we as a nation looking to advance into space--where resources and our very survival may someday soon depend?

Just think what those multi trillions of dollars spent (some would say squandered) in Iraq and Afghanistan (now being overrun by ISIS or threatened by the Taliban) as well as for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (uh, what did we really accomplish for all that money spent?).

Where we once led, and as children we stood in awe, now we stand in bewilderment and leave our children marveling at the victories and accomplishments of others. 

We can not/must not become complacent or stop investing strategically in our future--we need to act with urgency and commitment again for our nation to succeed. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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October 25, 2013

Rock Into Space

Very excited by news in the Wall Street Journal on advances for Space Tourism. 

Paragon Space Development Corp is developing a space helium-filled balloon to take us into the wild-blue (and black) yonder. 

The balloon will be as wide as a football field.

It will transport 8 people to an altitude of 18 miles, high enough to move around for about 6 hours and get a "panoramic view of the globe without having to wear space suits of don oxygen masks."

The cost will be about $75,000 per person--which seems almost doable for middle class folks who want the ultimate travel experience. 

In contrast, Virgin Galactic will rocket passengers 60 miles high where customers can experience weightlessness for about $250,000. 

Other ventures are developing offerings of trips to the International Space Station, an orbiting hotel, and even the moon. 

I think it would be so awesome to experience space travel and see G-d's creations in a whole new perspective-filled way. 

It's amazing, we are so small in the realm of things, yet we fallaciously think we are so big. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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April 12, 2013

Tiptoeing Or Delivering A Knockout Punch

Russia (and many others countries) develop some really kick-a*s weapons--especially, when they are so simple, yet so devastatingly effective. 

Like this TOS-1A heavy flamethrower system--it is a multi-rocket launcher mounted on a T-72 main battle tank chassis. 

The TOS-1A carries 30 (newer version 24) 220-mm incendiary or thermobaric unguided rockets that it can shoot up to 3 km (newer version 6 km), and it destroys everything within 300 square meters using high-pressure and temperature.

What is cool is that the technology seems boiled down to the basics--shoot and eliminate. And when multiple TOS-1As roll unto the battlefield--they unleash what looks like a ruthless barrage of destructive fire. 

Of course, precision targeting weapons have the added benefit of mitigating civilian casualties--but from the looks of things, that is not what this weapon is all about.

The question is do you go half way or finish the job--do you hit below the belt or keep it a clean fight?

In war, if you leave the enemy intact or with fighting capabilities, then you may just have to fight them another day. 

While the rules of war protect people from the cruelties of all out hostilities, we need to make sure that in the end, it keeps them safe over the long-term, and does not just prolong the inevitable cat-fight.

Good, kind, and just people often don't feel comfortable delivering a knockout punch, but sometimes (not all the time) that is just what is needed to restore the peace.  ;-)


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July 13, 2012

Bomb Shelters For Kindergarten Children

I came across of photo from United With Israel, a global advocacy group, taken in Nitzan, Israel. 

Nitzan is home to about 600 families, mostly from Gush Katif, where more than 8,600 residents were evacuated and their homes demolished in Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005. 

Now living in temporary plaster shelters in Nitzan, just north of the city of Ashkelon, these residents live in constant fear of terrorist and rocket attacks.

Two bomb shelters for their kindergarten classes have been erected.

In this photo, the children are painting murals on the bomb shelter. 

It is heart-wrenching that little school children should need bomb shelters to hide in, because they are being targeted by deadly attackers. 

What type of world are we living in?

The colorful pictures of water, fish, sand, starfish, clouds, and more is beautiful and serene in the face of the fear these children must face daily. 

I have never seen a children's mural on a bomb shelter, but am grateful for the spirit of these kindergarten children to stand up in the face of evil. 

The L-rd "who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." (Psalm 121)

May these precious children sleep a little better under the protection of G-d and their new bomb shelters. 

(Source Photo: United With Israel)

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