Israeli Airline C-Music Tracks RPG Missiles

In 2002, terrorists fired shoulder-launched missiles at an Israeli Arkia Airlines passenger plane as it was taking off from Mombasa in Kenya. The two missiles missed their target and the plane landed safely in Tel Aviv.

On several occasions in recent years, Israeli airlines were instructed to halt domestic service to the southern port and resort city of Eilat due to the threat of possible shoulder-fired missile attacks from terrorists operating in the bordering Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

Israel has successfully completed a series of tests of an anti-missile defense system for passenger jets, the system’s manufacturer and Israel’s Defense Ministry announced.

Elbit System’s C-Music system – whose Hebrew name translates to “Sky Shield” – is designed to protect commercial airliners against shoulder-fired missiles.

Here is a dramatization posted to YouTube of the system in use: 

Time: 01:52

Israel’s Transportation Ministry said the system will now be installed on Israeli airliners.

The simulation picture shows a laser fired from under the aircraft intercepting an incoming missile. (Image source: YouTube) 

Israel’s Army Radio reported that several Israeli passenger planes have already been outfitted with the gear.

These photos from the Defense Ministry and Elbit Systems show the system installed under passenger aircraft:

Elbit’s C-Music anti-missile system installed on the underbelly of a passenger plane. (Photo: Defense Ministry/Elbit Systems)

Photo: Israeli Defense Ministry and Elbit Systems

The system detects incoming missiles with a thermal camera. When the missile reaches a certain proximity to the aircraft, the system fires a laser at the missile’s seeker which deflects it off of its trajectory, allowing it to explode at a safe distance from the aircraft.

The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reports Hamas recently smuggled “relatively advanced Russian missiles” looted from Libyan military warehouses into Gaza, upgrading the anti-aircraft capability of the Islamist Palestinian terrorist group.

“The experiments, carried out in southern Israel, were some of the most complex and sophisticated ever carried out in Israel,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement Wednesday in the Jeruselum Post. “They simulated a range of threats that the C-Music system will have to deal with.”

“C-Music is considered the most advanced system of its kind in the world, and will provide ultimate defense to planes,” the ministry said. “It combined advanced detection and disruption technologies, and meets the stringent requirements of commercial flight.”

Another view of the system designed to protect passenger planes against shoulder-fired missiles. (Photo: Israeli Defense Ministry and Elbit Systems)

Elbit Systems President and CEO Bezhalel Machlis said the system is applicable both to commercial and military jets and that the defense contractor has already received orders from the Brazilian and Italian air forces.

“C-Music” is designed for both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. The acronym stands for Commercial-Multi Spectral Infrared Countermeasure.

God Bless America!

I am sick and tired about President Obama always shredding our American values as he sees fit!

The Most Exceptional Country in World History

In 2014, Americans are at a major historical crossroads with far reachingTo order CD: Click Picture decisions--we must choose the road that moves in the opposite direction of Washington; otherwise, we lose our individual rights that were hard won by our ancestors up to present. Watch this United States of America spectacle from our country's birth to present day with John "Duke" Wayne, an American cowboy film icon. It is a "G" rated family show which aired on NBC that everyone should watch to see our own American history about patriotism and country--what a concept! (You can choose a five minute Video Clip below)

"Three years after the hippie movement's "Summer of Love," the country was politically divided like never before, and this 80-minute special was Wayne's attempt to counteract the "anti-American" war protests with a rousing, patriotic, and unifying reminder of America's greatness.

"As an amazing time capsule of all-star entertainment, John Wayne's Tribute to America provides a perfect snapshot of American television in the year 1970. Under its original title Swing Out, Sweet Land, this Emmy-winning variety show was originally broadcast on NBC on November 29, 1970, and was intended, in part, as John Wayne's personal response to growing protest against the war in Vietnam. [John Wayne was battling lung cancer and succumbed in 1974.]

Time: 1:19:49

NOTE: For those who don't want to watch the entire program and just want a brief review of the show: Start it and Push radio button right to the Time: 1:12:04. Watch the finale at only five minutes long. 

"In his introduction, Wayne (whose controversial conservatism ran against the rising tide of liberal politics) promises that the show will be apolitical and "short on preaching," focusing instead on America as "one of those yarn-spinnin' places"--a proud land of immigrants where people didn't take themselves too seriously, and where courage and nobility were mixed with song, dance, and humor as the country expanded westward. 

"Swing Out, Sweet Land then kicks into high gear, with Glenn Campbell singing "This Is a Great Country" (from Irving Berlin's final musical, Mr. President), followed by a veritable who's who of veteran entertainers, singing songs, telling jokes and appearing in historical sketches that unabashedly express Wayne's pro-American sentiments. As a tuneful history lesson, the program won an Emmy award for Dominic Frontiere's outstanding achievement in musical direction. 

Factoid: "For some viewers this will be a welcome trip down memory lane, or a nostalgic reminder of a kind of patriotic spirit that had grown increasingly old-fashioned even in 1970. Others will see it as a perfect target for the kind of variety-show spoofs that were later perfected on SCTV. No matter how you perceive it now, Swing Out, Sweet Land offers an abundance of one-of-a-kind highlights, like Bing Crosby playing Mark Twain; Roscoe Lee Browne as Frederick Douglass; Ann-Margaret dancing up a patriotic storm; William Shatner doing some "serious acting" as John Adams; Lucille Ball as the voice of the Statue of Liberty; George Burns poking fun at Jack Benny in a hilarious walk-on cameo; Ricky and David Nelson as Confederate and Union enemies; Johnny Cash billed as a "locomotive troubadour," singing a flawless rendition of "Ribbon of Steel"; and Bob Hope doing his war-time comedy act... at Valley Forge! That's just a sampling of the stars on hand for Wayne's salute to America, along with a ghost-town sketch that qualifies as a kind of early farewell to Wayne's established Western persona. And while most of Swing Out, Sweet Land  now looks impossibly quaint and dated, it's more than worthy of DVD revival as a memorable TV footnote to Wayne's big-screen career. The original 1970 broadcast was sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, and as a bonus feature the DVD includes the show's original commercials for Budweiser beer, one featuring Wayne and Ed McMahon. Also included is an archival clip of Wayne promoting his then-new film The Alamo while appearing as the "mystery guest" on a 1960 episode of the popular TV game show What's My Line?" 

Credit: Review by Jeff Shannon

Let the Dueling Taps Begin

I danced in the morning when the world was begun,

I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun,

I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth,

At Bethlehem I had my birth.

"Dance then, wherever you may be,

I am the Lord of the Dance," said he,

"And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,

And I'll lead you all in the dance," said he.

Time: 05:22

"Give my Regards to Old Broadway!"

In Rome at the North American College rectors were feted at a dinner.  Initially it appeared to be just another santimonious evening of drawn out speeches like a high mass with a chewy rubber chicken dinner. What a delight for guests to be entertained by a talented group of seminarians in an acappella choir only accompanied by piano. Then, in a good-natured dueling taps competition are two exceptional tap dancers, seminarians David Rider and John Gibson. Watch and enjoy!

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster - Lost to Allah

From the July 14, 2014 USA Today newspaper book review, I discovered a surprising twist I never knew before as NASA personnel information was never doggedly pursued by the media. In Sally Ride's first space trip in 1983, she flew in the Challenger Space shuttle and was the first woman in outerspace and returned again in 1984 onboard the Challenger. Sally was married in 1982, divorced in 1987. The "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on service by gays and lesbians in the military instituted by the Clinton Administration. Sally Ride was a lesbian and it was kept a secret until her death in 2012. 

"Sally Ride: America's FIrst Woman In Space," by Lynn Sherr.(Photo: Handout)

'SALLY RIDE: AMERICA'S FIRST WOMAN IN SPACE'

By Lynn Sherr - USA Today Summer Book Review

Simon & Schuster, non-fiction

What it's about: Biography of the NASA pioneer, America's first woman in space [1986], whose sexual identity (she was gay) was kept a secret until after her death in 2012.

Why it's hot: Publishers Weekly calls it "a window into one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century."

Everywhere in the United States people agree that the 1986 Challenger shuttle accident was a true disaster apparently caused by faulty o-ring seals which sealed the fuselage sections that had leaked fuel, ignited by its thruster rocket engines and caused the fireball explosion in lift-off into assent like a Roman candle into the skies. Ironically, Sally Ride was the only person to serve on both NASA investigations of shuttle disasters of the Challenger and Columbia. Now, lets go forward twenty-seven years up to 2014...

What if you are a young Muslim Islamist living in the middle East today? What if you saw a video produced in 2013 to historically explain the United States space event 27 years later? What would be your reaction? ...Read an actual review of the video below: 

"I think the true story is that they sent the 'Challenger' to show that there is no God in the skies, to prove that there is no almighty outside the Earth, I don't think it was for adultery. [at least this young Muslim questioned the adultery claim] The 'Challenger' was named that to challenge the idea of God's existence, and verily did Allah show them there's only One Winner." [that's warped insane]

Political Muslim dynamite explodes with a wild claim that 'ungodly' adultery was to take place up in orbit on the fatal 1986 Challenger space shuttle. It further promotes the idea that unpure infidels were 'challenging Allah into his face' by soaring up into the heavens to deny Allah's existence. What if those producers had found out years ago that Sally Ride was a Lesbian and they distorted that fact too? The video commentary spews out hilariously idiotic garbage.

Watch this video & Make up your mind:  

Time: 01.52

Hear the Message Loud & Clear - Save Your Life

This effective, hardhitting Public Service Announcement ad delivers the message loud and clear--please resend it out to others so that they may view it too. It may just save a life, maybe yours one day by "the other text messaging" driver coming right at you head on.

Volkswagen PSA Against Texting & Driving

If you have not seen the extremely effective PSA by Volkswagen to patrons in a movie theatre see below. Volkswagen sends a location SMS or “location aware text message” to viewers of the footage of a driver. Watch what happens below. (The PSA is the brain child of Volkswagen & Ad Agency Ogilvy.)

Time: 01.23

How Volkswagen Sent A Location SMS 

In Hong Kong there are different rules on sending messages to mobile users than here in the U.S. so it is important to follow FCC rules, CTIA guide lines and MMA best practices. Volkswagen used a location based broadcaster and sent messaging to patrons with bluetooth on, but sending a message to make a strong point as a public service announcement is going to be received differently than a spammy sales message, so you might want to think twice about investing in one.

How To Send A Location Based Message Without Invading A Mobile Users Privacy

The simple answer is, Ask.

Location aware text messaging services such as Thumbvista’s requires a opt-in by the mobile user requesting the use of their location. This is a good thing, a study was recently conducted  by Urban Airship showed that 62% of those surveyed agreed to share their location for relevant messaging, meaning they want to hear from that product or service provider. With other varies forms of location based advertising all that is required is to used an application with location services on and agreeing to receive messaging. A bluetooth broadcaster most likely sent the message to the refined area in a close proximity such as a theatre and by using BLE or low energy bluetooth devices or wifi micro indoor location triggered messaging can occur via mobile web or application. Marketers can use applications and mobile GPS to trigger messaging in a general area a little larger or non-application geofencing can be used to send a message to an even larger general perimeter. The main takeaway from all of these methods is to get permission before you send a location based message to avoid the any privacy issues.

Creative messaging is hugely effective when tied with relevance. Whether the use of timing or location provides more relevance depends on the strategy, but Volkswagen created a remarkable PSA that has went viral and hopefully does what it set out to do, not sell cars, but to inform mobile users on the dangers of texting while driving.