I'm still here. My academic posts are here on blogger- but I haven't been feeling too academic lately. I still have problems with both the ACU and the army's wear of the flag, but I imagine that I will eventually have to get over it.

Therefore, my more lighthearted daily blogging activity will be found on xanga.

Why I can write about the ACU...

Since I have written the post regarding the ACU, I have been asked, "Bob, what makes you qualified to comment on the Army Combat Uniform? Aren't you Air Force? Aren't you like completely clueless about land warfare?"

Well, let's start .

I am qualified to comment on military camouflage patterns. Why? I have been involved in commercial art and natural science since the early 1980's, working with protective coloration in nature. I developed a "universal disruptive camouflage" pattern, which I dubbed envirocam in 1985. (This pattern was stolen - excuse me- "simutaneously developed" and put into production by an outdoor equipment manufacturer, as I stupidly showed the pattern before I had registered the design.) Following this, as part of my undergraduate study, I had researched the history of miltary printed-fabric camouflage, and its effectiveness in the enironment -beginning with its invention and widescale use by the German military forces of the Third Reich, on through the use of the first "digitized" patterns developed by both the Soviet Union and the United States in the late 1980's.

I studied and compared patterns in use from many nations for different climatic and geographic regions, and suitabilty of patterns for concealment in close range and distance viewing. Given that all coloration factors in the study were appropriate for the given environment, (i.e. woodland patterns studied in woodland areas, grassland patterns studied in grassland areas, etc.) certain existing patterns which may have worked well at close range had a tendency of being glaringly obvious at longer distances, or when the subject was moving.

In most cases, the most effective patterns could be called "compromise patterns", giving up some close range or long range concealment benefit, for an overall general effectiveness. The "woodland camouflage" pattern as used by all branches of the U.S. military until recently, was a good example of an effective "compromise pattern".

(an interesting side note, the Waffen-SS developed several different camouflage patterns for use on military uniforms through WWII. Several of the patterns developed at this time remain some of the most effective patterns to break up the the human sillouhette in both close range and longer distance viewing by use of of ingenious interpolaxion of both densly fine patterned areas onto to larger color groups.http://www.1944militaria.com/44_dot_tunic3a.jpg , http://www.1944militaria.com/mg_gunner2.jpg What is most interesting, is that following German Reuinification in the 1990's, the German Federal Armed Forces (Deustches Bundeswehr) returned to a variant of these wartime patterns. This "new" pattern is not "digitized", and is produced in both woodland and desert variants, and is probably the most effective camouflage pattern in the world today.) To see some examples of this pattern, look here: http://www.flecktarn.co.uk/gallery.html#two

If the Army is concerned about "black not being found in nature", what about a pattern consisting only of 90 degree right angles, hmmm? But I digress...

...When I began work for the U.S. Army's museum system, I continued my private research in protective coloration and patterning using the resources professionally availiable to me. I could go on, but that would involve further pummeling the expired equine.

Second question- Yes, I'm Air Force. So what? Do I have ground combat experience? Not very much. That's why I don't spend a lot of time questioning other modifications that the ACU incorporates, such as padded elbows and knees, and placement of other pockets. I can debate coloration and patterning until the cows come home, however. (with the exception of button closures versus velcro and zippers- any mediocre bowhunter can tell you that velcro and zippers are a b-a-a-d idea where stealth is concerened.)

Sadly, the Air Force is not immune from the desire to adopt a new unique "combat" uniform. From what I have seen of the current samples, it's only slightly better colored than the ACU, and again has to be on the trendy bandwagon and use "digitized" patterning. My feeling, for an Air Force camouflage combat uniform to be effective, it should be a light gray with a light pebbled pattern, A big fat yellow stipe running down it, and a hat incorporating a blue taxiway light on the top. That way, when under attack, the wearer can just lie down on the ramp, turn on his light, and become instantly invisible.

But seriously, any "universal camouflage" is probably the worst compromise of all for protective coloration and patterning, as it is impossible to suitably approximate all terrestrial environment with a single pattern and color pallette. The best that we could hope to do to fix the ACU would be to shift the color pallette from a sickly washed out green to a darker medium brown (the shade currently known as coyote brown would be a good dominant shade), where at least the colors would have some hope of matching a forest floor as well as a dusty road, or mud plastered buildings and rocky slopes.

Nattick Labs, you need a new consultant on retainer, and I am he.

The Army's new "Combat Uniform", and Backwards Flags.

I can't hold back any longer. The United States Army, (the branch of the military that thinks it's a good idea to wear the U.S. flag backwards in direct violation of the United States Code, section 3) is fielding the new Army Combat Uniform (ACU), a field uniform designed in a "universal camouflage".

First point, the "Universal Camouflage"is neither universal, nor camouflage. In direct imitation of the US Marine Corps new utility uniform, the Army uniform also uses a "digitized" pattern, but differs in its choices of colors. Whereas the Marines saw fit to continue issue of both a temperate (i.e. "woodland") pattern and a desert pattern, the Army decided to create one color scheme to work everywhere in the world.

(to see the ACU, and to hear the Army's reasons for adopting this monstrosity, click on the following link:) http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/acu.htm

Guess what? The ACU doesn't work. Whatever testing they conducted for the color scheme, I have no idea. The light sage green, bottle green, and khaki scheme works nowhere. (except maybe on the beach at Waikiki - it does make for a decent Aloha Shirt) It's far to light to provide effective camouflage in woodland or even grassland areas, and the sickly green color stands out like a sore thumb in a desert environment. Taking out the black ( black is "not found in nature" according to the Army's Nattick Laboratories), removes the ability for the pattern to break up the human sillouhette by imitating shadow in wooded areas.

A quick note on desert environments and protective coloration- when the US military issued its first dedicated desert camouflage pattern in the early 1980's, it was specifically designed to work in the region of the Sinai, a rocky area where we were engaged in peacekeeping activities at the time. This uniform became known during the First Gulf War as the "Chocolate Chip" uniform, but is more correctly known as the five-color "pattern, camouflage, day-desert". Outside of the rocky Sinai region, this pattern is relatively useless, as the vast majority of the deserts of the middle east (and the rest of the world, for that matter) are composed of bright, light, sand. So the three-color desert pattern was introduced by the close of the First Gulf War, which actually works pretty good in these environments. It's interesting to note that many of the national militaries of the countries that actually consist of these desert areas, such as Iraq, Iran, and Israel favored olive green for their combat uniforms. Why? Because people don't actually live in the desert. They live in towns, where the water is, and consequently, where the vegetation is. When we re-created the Iraqi military in late 2003, we took away their olive green "Saddam-esque" uniforms, and gave them, guess what? The "chocolate chips".

What was the reasoning behind this single uniform, the ACU? According to an article in the Army Times, the idea was to save money by only issuing one combat uniform to troops, instead of changing uniform types from environment to environment, in the case of the woodland Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) and the three-color Desert Combat Uniform (DCU). Of course, the new Army Combat Uniform costs twice as much as either the BDU or the DCU, and lasts for half as long.

Good points about the new ACU?
1)The funky "mandarin collar" is designed to to be more comfortable when worn under body armor, and likewise,
2)the pockets are placed to be more accessible when body armor is worn.

Bad points about the ACU? (other than the aforementioned coloration issues)
1)When not worn under body armor, the ACU just looks bad. I know this is a subjective statement, but come on, just look at it...
2)The front placket now opens with a zipper, rather than with concealed buttons. This adds to the expense of the garment, and seriously cuts down on the longevity of its wearability. In interviews I conducted in the Kaiserslautern Military Community with Army troops returning from Iraq with the new ACU, I was told that they experienced a one- to- two month life span on the shirt, whereas up to six months with the existing DCU shirt.

(note- military nomenclature being what it is, the items that I will call "shirts" here, are alternately called "shirts", "coats", or "jackets" in the supply system, but all refer to the same piece of clothing.)

Anyhow, this is just one person's opinion of the ACU. (One person that happens to be a former professional Registrar for the U.S. Army's official museum system.) Other opinions may vary.

Regarding backwards flags---

And incidentally, it occurred to me that the Army's wear of the US flag is correct, (with the union in the upper left of the flag as displayed IAW USC s3)
---ONLY if the wearer is lying on their back, such as being a casualty strapped on to a litter, or zipped into a body bag.

Helpful hint: If you want the union of the flag facing forward, wear it on the LEFT ARM, like the Air Force does on its flight suits. And don't give me crap that you can't have it on the same side as the unit patch, since almost everybody from truck drivers to postal clerks has combat patches on the right arm now, anyway.

World Overpopulation, Space exploration, and American Indians

Today I was conversing with a CCATT physician about global geopolitics. Being geographically and culturally remote by being (normally) stationed at Elmendorf, he has a more unique world view, which can be quite refreshing to a lower forty-eighter.

Fer instance:

He relayed this story about an Alaskan native who stated that there were "only two problems in this world- water and energy." (personally, I would have said "water" and "land" -that should cover pretty much everything, too.) He said, "bullsh*t! There's only one problem in this world, and that's overpopulation!" And went on to explain that the maximum sustainable population of this planet is approximately 1.5 to 2 billion people.

The interesting thing, is not only that I agree with that statement, but he agreed with my solution of colonizing Mars.

Valles Marinaris (not a pasta dish) might be colder than a Wyoming winter, but it should have a greater atmospheric pressure than at the upper surface, and more capable of retaining a thicker nitrogen and hydrocarbon-rich fog in which to terraform with. As soon as we have reliable privatized heavy lift, we're going!

And here I expand a bit on this subject, and why it is that I find it so critically important to our continued survival:

Proof of a higher intelligence in the universe and the role of man can simply be expressed as the exploration drive, and the stepping stones given to us. Throughout human history, all major advances come by way of exploration (which also, in the case of the mongol expansion period of 1207-1227 also includes conquest). Every goal has been placed just out of reach, requiring effort to get there- and then there's the next goal. On earth, it has been the crossing of seas, and then oceans which necessatated the advances in technology and thought proccesses to get to the other side, followed by colonization and trade.

In space, distances have been equally set out as stepping stones to further human exploration.

Space colonization is necessary to allow for the continued expansion of human population.

Space colonization is necessary to relax the strain for sustenance from our mother planet.

Space colonization is necessary to provide the drive to develop manageable closed ecosystems to produce foodstuffs and other renewable resources.

From earth, the closest goal is our moon. 1960's technology, and a strong exploration drive allowed us to get there. The moon provides a low-gravity near-vacuum environment and some basic raw resources to allow for a convenient jumping off point to reach the next logical planet for human habitation, Mars. Using the moon as a launch point to build a Martian colony would take full advantage of the moon's environment to allow for heavier lift at greater efficiency.

Upon reaching Mars, the process of terraforming could begin, which undoubtebly would take many generations- but the beauty of this plan is that our filthiest, most polluting industries would actually assist in helping to build a functional martian atmosphere over time, and eventually, a second home for humans -necessary if the species is to survive a potential cataclysm limited to a single world, such as an asteroid strike.

From Mars, the next source of raw materials availiable to us are located in the asteroid belt. From there, we have the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. From there, our closet solar neighbor, Proxima, is roughly 1.7 light years distant. Using nuclear propulsion theorized in the 1950's, but never implemented (due to worries of poluting near-earth space), Proxima could be reached in less than four years- this figure allows for acceleration to .75 light and deceleration to reach the destination.

Although this technology might not allow for human travel due to possibly excessive accelerational forces, it could easily allow for robotic exploration of the Proxima system, with normal radio return transmission of aquired data. From the point such a mission left our solar system, to the point in which actual data was received from another star sytem, might be no more than six years. If we as a species had continued our exploration curve of the 1960's, we would have had a manned mars mission by the mid 1980's, a permanent manned presence there by the 1990's, and we could be getting data back from Proxima by 2010. Using today's (actually yesterday's) technology.

Manned exploration of the same system, using current technology, would be done in a self-sustaining "colony" ship. Not a generation ship, where the arrivees are the descendents of the departees, the distance is just not that great.

From Proxima, the other nearby star systems are laid out in increasingly distant proportions, which to reach would require additional advances in technology, currently thought as impossible. The impossible will always remain so, if the possible is not attempted. That's my quote.

I hate to say it, but the overcomplicated and delicate Space Shuttle killed space exploration.

So remember this, the next time you worry about what unecessary consumer electronics you absolutely must have next. While we are sitting in traffic in our climate controlled leather-appointed Lincoln Navigators, sucking down limited fossil fuels as we listen to 500 watt surround sound stereo, we are collectively gameboy-ing our civilization into oblivion.

You can quote me on that, too.

Even certified Evil Geniuses must eventually write something new.

It is at this point in time, that I must apologize that the Evil Genius Certification did not post completely, which deprives all of you of the highly appropriate illustration contained therein.

Curses be to the electronic juggernaut that controls our destinies in this poxed age of misogyny and cultural delusioon! Grrr! Woof! Woof!

Now I must have a cookie, and re-examine my priorities. Excuse me.

I, too, am an evil genius.

I am 85% Evil Genius.
http://www.fuali.com/test.aspx?id=7710f76e-78a7-45c0-863e-f129772764f0"> src="http://www.fuali.com/testimage.aspx?img=8c4d8770-7999-43a4-8945-7f73647329b9.gif" alt="Evil to the Bone!" border="0" style="margin-top:5px">

I am pure evil. I lie awake at night devising schemes of world domination, and I will not rest until all living souls bend to my will.

Take'>http://www.fuali.com/test.aspx?id=7710f76e-78a7-45c0-863e-f129772764f0">Take the
Evil Genius Test
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I have arrived at Blogger.

As if I didn't have enough to do already, here I am with another blog.