Stop Bashing China

Several years ago while in China for business I took a weekend and went to the Great Wall with by local Beijing Sales team. The two associates that acted as my host had done so many times but never with anyone as knowledgeable in Chinese history as me. While leaving one of the museums we noticed dozens of military trucks pulling up. The local PLA base uses the Great Wall as the location of their weekly graduation ceremony. This would of course be akin to a USMC  recruit class at Quantico going to the Washington 
Monument to graduate. About 1,000 young Chinese got out of the trucks along with their drill instructors and marched in formation to the top of the Great Wall. Right  behind them were their parents,boyfriends & girlfriends, (the graduating class was COED ) , "Don't Ask /Don't Tell Hasn't Reached the a PLA yet .  The drill instructors lined the unit up and went into a typical pitch. Having only several months before watched my son graduate from his USAF basic training made me realize that drill instructors were the same all over the world. ( At least in organized provisional state oriented military groups vs. ? Jihad central). When the ceremony was over ---it strangely parallel what I had seen a few months before with the top squad , top recruit ,etc. mentioned , the graduates embraced their family members and left to celebrate. As I looked at the feet of the graduates I noticed almost every ones pants had holes in the bottom and their dress shoes were falling apart. As we followed them back to their trucks I noticed the trucks so resembled Tonka Toys from the 60's I couldn't help but smile and wondered what an air to ground missile from an F-16 would do to them. What's the point for bringing this up. Simple China isn't our enemy. They may be pushing us economically which we need that. If anyone takes time to visit China they will find that it's becoming what we used to be. The biggest fights I saw were people trying to get onto the limited shuttle buses that were taking shoppers to the newly opened Walmart . At the Chinese McDonalds ,KFC,& Pizza Hut .while they speak Chinese vs. Spanish you are better understood and your order is correct vs. here. So stop trying to stir up anti Chinese sentiment by harping on defense cuts and preparing to fight China. Yes we need to fund our forces at the highest amount ; but for technology that makes sense and can be used for both the next 100 year asymmetrical era as well as classical conflict via the Jihadist wave hick jacking nation states ( Egypt,Libya,and the already hijacked Iran thanks to a weak presidents understanding of global dynamics ).

For details on what types of technology can be used to secure ourselves with a solution in surveillance and security in an asymmetrical era please see posts at : http://www.falascoj.blogspot.com/  Constructive comments that can leverage anyone's product or position are welcome.

Matel Toys Win The West When Applied to Surveillance and Security In An Asymmetrical Era

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8qXLxHi9_8&sns=emhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8qXLxHi9_8&sns=em

These were the days . Before the crush of political correctness when kids could play in their yards and streets in front of their houses and not be afraid  of predators on two legs. Consider this concept . When cowboys rode off the television range we lost our moral compass. What data supports this ? Well how many school shootings, courthouse bombings,freeway snipers,Holloway ,et. al incidents were there in the golden era of the western.  Zero !!!  Case closed. Within several years without realizing it the forces of islamic revolution coalesced and with the aid of a weak presidential decision not to back the Shah of Iran was lost and we entered the asymmetrical era of terror politics. We now must be prepared to put into place solution sets that will preserve our infrastructure .

The New Craft of Intelligence: Achieving Asymmetric Advantage in the Face of Nontraditional Threats

Great descriptions of various topics related to asymmetrical warfare and theories we are facing in the asymmetrical era we are now participating in.

https://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB217.pdf


The New Craft of Intelligence: Achieving Asymmetric Advantage in the Face of Nontraditional Threats


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assymetrical_warfare#Tactical_basis

Capturing a New Asymmetrical Era

As we continue to study the themes of asymmetrical activities against the western world by Islamic  jihadists bent on destroying our "morally bankrupt" way of life I find several things very ironic.

If the Islamic Jihadist gets to see all the Virgins after he performs his suicidal act can anyone explain what Osama Bin Laden was doing with his vast pornographic collection. Was he using it as source material to make training videos for the previously mentioned Jihadists Virgin visit ?

I'm always curious as to  what the Jihadists do before a one way mission? Certainly they don't have the lore and group cohesion that any western force would have as the suicidal culture of their acts don't exactly engender it. What would the Islamic version of this video look like for example?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_AIP_NLMbI&sns=em

These observations are not met to be disrespectful or sarcastic. It's just that the Islamic movement has so little to say that is constructive or informative as to their behavior and action . Now is your opportunity to inform us . What do you have to say ?

Ten Top Reasons Why The Robotics Market Is Hot Again

10.Pervasive Internet
      With the all encompassing reach of the Internet old ideas resurface and morph into a reflection of the current environment . With all the attention paid to drones and other related technology people have rediscovered robotics and using the connectivity of the Internet building a worldwide community. This factor gives some glue to the movement that didn't exist when the last crazes hit.

9.  Shortage of New Technical Ideas
              With technology breakthroughs being reduced to seeing how one can develop an API for Facebook or come up with another name for Cloud Computing is it any wonder people have rediscovered hard science and the tough problems that surround autonomous robotic behavior.

8.  Robots Have Always Been Interesting
      Since the days of Jules Verne and the advent of science fiction movies we have always been drawn to the mystic of robotic creations and potentials. In reality the Science Fiction is becoming Science Fact and we still are looking for our personal Gort or Robbie.

7.  Popularity of Roomba & Scooba
      The success of I-Robots home devices encouraged the market and has given a whole new legitimate cache to robotics. In the past there was no monetary basis or justification for the market. The fact a company could actually make money in this space has pushed the market along further then anything else could have.

6.  Transformer Generation Grows Up
        When the first robotics craze hit in the fifties the mass toy merchandising  approach was limited to black and white TV adds that were pretty dull ,no Walmart's,Target's or Toys or Us and no Internet and companion video games. With the era of the Transformers twenty years latter a whole new generation got immersed in the total ecosystem that gave birth to the idea of reconfigurable toy robots. This generation now has the ability and where with all to dream of real robotic solutions for today's problems.

5.  Government Incentives To Push The Envelope For DOD Requirements
      Over the past few years DARPA and other DOD agencies have been pushing the state of the art in all things robotic by providing plenty of opportunities through challenges , BAA's, & SBIR's to gain funding for your robotic concepts. Having participated in the first DARPA  autonomous land vehicle program in the mid 80's it's very rewarding to see how far things have progressed both technically and acceptance wise.

4.  New Social Media & Old Line Technical Press Are Creating Buzz To Make Money
        With the evolution of the Internet the era of the big trade show is over. No longer to 50,000 people in one day attend events like the NCC,Compdex, and all the other mega and minor trade shows. In the hay day of the Oil Industry, mini skirted girls served whiskey and beer while the Charlie Daniels band played. Those events have disappeared off the landscape and the trade show mavens have been replaced by the social media traffickers and their web pages ,tweeting and hijacking of LinkedIn and other sites to hype what ever market they are trying to create a buzz around. It is my observation that to fill an economic void this community has picked up on the robotics concept and proceeding to hype it to create a revenue stream for themselves. This trend has manifested itself in the past around any number of niche technologies. In the end the only winners are the companies hosting the websites , trade shows and related advertising entourage. The robotics technology companies are left asking :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOyQfd7OqIY&sns=em

3.  The Enabling Technology Really Has Arrived
        Perhaps after 50 years of dreaming the market has really arrived or is just around the corner. With such a convergence of technology it's not possible the the era of actual sustainable revenue models being generated by robotics companies has finally arrived. I personally believe we are closer then we have ever  been before but not quite there yet.

2.  Everyone Wants To Cash In On Popularity Of UAV's
      The wild success of UAV's in the asymmetrical encounters we now face has obviously helped keep robotics and all related enabling technology on the front pages of not only national non technical publications but technical ones as well. This buzz has undoubtedly helped push forward interest in all things robotic.

1.  Naive Technical Founders With No Perspective of History
    As mentioned before the robotics craze is not new , just coming back for the third time depending on how you count since the fifties. Each time a little different and of course with more technology around it . The difference is now more then ever there seem to be more companies involved. Many of course are hobby , life style groups run by people who really can't and don't want to learn from the past mistakes that has caused this market to really never bake. Consider for example placing the robotics market next to say the  automotive and aerospace markets. The parallels are very similar in that when each started they were considered fads. Within a much shorter time frame each became viable industries while virtually over the same timeline the robotics market has lurched along.