Stealth helo

I remember being on base in Pensacola during my Navy training in 1988 and being astonished when two helicopters in the distance suddenly went completely silent. Now I wonder if I was watching some of these stealth helicopters.

The May 2 raid on Osama bin Laden’s luxury compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, had it all: painstaking intelligence-gathering, a heroic Navy SEAL assault team, satellite and drone surveillance, and biometric forensics.

And now this: a possible super-secret, stealthy helicopter, unknown to the wider world before one crashed during the assault.

via Aviation Geeks Scramble to ID bin Laden Raid’s Mystery Copter | Danger Room | Wired.com.

Level that playing field

I read with concern today that the U.S. Post Office is closing a local mail station because of to the shrinking volume of mail being sent. Cited for this decline was the rise of email, online bill payment, and the growing use of commercial shippers like FedEx and UPS.

It’s a shame that private enterprise is allowed to compete with the government. These companies are using their commercial nature to unfairly compete with the public entities. If only there was a law that reigned in the predatory nature of private enterprise … you know, level the playing field, so to speak. Wouldn’t that be great?