NASA's One Man Stealth Plane

This is cooooool stuff. Just imagine the possibilities...

The NZSAS situation in Afghanistan is all over the news and I probably should exercise a little care commenting on it.

However the long standing military buff and generally helpful sort in me (!) viewed this latest article questioning our PM's credibility had me ask a question that i'm not sure the article does: Should our soldiers have stood by as events unfolded? Seriously?

Do we not give credit, all the time, to folks who pitch in and do what needs to be done in the face of trauma?

Tamahere anyone?

My condolances to the family and friends of Squadron Leader Nick Cree, Royal New Zealand Air Force.

Turns out my wife knows his wife through an Internet forum. The world is too small, and a good officer like this one should not have been taken from us in this tragic manner.

RIP.

[Edit: In related news, a local Helicopter Pilot used a remarkable amount of forethought in assisting this way. Good man!!]

Exercise Restrictions with the USA may well be about to dissapear. There'd still be some ship-visit restrictions, of course, but this is a definate positive move.

Folks need to take into account that fundamentally, we share similar visions and a similar mission in the War on Terror and on the general need to protect the freedom of our respective citizens. The "5 Eyes Community" (Australia Canada UK US NZ) have an awful lot in common, and (it is my humble opinion that) the restrictions havn't exactly helped us in our common goals.

So yay for positive moves in a forward direction!

A 27 year RNZAF Veteran and Flight Sergeant was killed whilst performing Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Tasks at Waiouru.

My condolances to his family friends in the wake of this tragedy. Very sad news.

3 News Video from Tonights newscast covering the reports of the NZ Security Intelligence Service asking Universities to watch out for suspicious behavior relating to WMD's.

The canned footage of 'NZSIS HQ', however, was from Stout Street... the location of NZDF HQ and NZSIS HQ until the end of 2006. By early 2007 (perhaps unfortunately for TV3), the NZSIS moved locations some 3 years ago? when Defence HQ moved from Stout St, to Aitken St. The fact that both NZDF and NZSIS is no secret ((Defence Update October 06, Page 2) and it's validated by the NZSIS's own Contact Us page.

(For the truly nosey, you could compare shots in the TV3 Clip with Google Street View.)

C'mon TV3, keep up!! :)

Found this video via a Tweet from @HuttNZ and nearly responded on Youtube; however that'd be a little too much like feeding the crazy ones, so here's my thoughts...

The former General Motors factory in Trnetham has least two legitimate uses... a movie set, and as office space for the NZDF Joint Logistics and Support Organisation. Supporting Links:

http://www.nzdf.mil.nz/corporate/jlso/about/default.htm

http://www.nzdf.mil.nz/corporate/jlso/contacts/default.htm

http://www.wakahuia.co.nz/?p=12116 (Text of an article which I think I originally read in the Upper Hutt Leader).

Funny the conclusions some people can come to?

Woodbourne on the cards for sure.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.........

Ok, so we have the US Navy in a Major Win over Somali Pirates... that's a plus. The Captain of that freighter deserves a medal for saving his crew like that...

We have a 13 year old who was Raped by a guy who stalked her along the road... And people who ignored her pleas for help in the leadup... (What-the-HELL?) ...

... and we have the Fijian Situation which defies belief.

What's going on in the world of today??!?

Iridium Satellite and defunct Russian Bird collide - and we now have even more collision risks in orbit.

Space debris is scary. Anyone seen Wall-E?

Images pinched from Discover Magazine and an article they've published on the debris issue, an interesting read and well worth a look.... scary, scary stuff. As time goes on it becomes more and more dangerous to go to space...

We need a big vacuum cleaner up there..!